Before He Came
by Plerfstacks
Summary: My take on what would have happened if a girl showed up in the Glade along with the original Gladers. Sorry for the bad summary; I'm not really good at writing them. :)
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! This is sort of my prequel to the Maze Runner trilogy. I've been working on it for a while, and I finally got around to publishing it after I already wrote seven chapters, so I'm uploading all of them at once. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimers and such:**

 **I do not own the Maze Runner Trilogy. The only thing that I own is the character whom I have thought up and the parts of the plot that I interpreted.**

 **Thank you!**

 **NOTE: This is my first fanfic, so constructive criticism is welcome, but please refrain from overly negative or hate comments.**

 **\- Plerfstacks :)**

Chapter 1

Anna's eyelids cracked open slightly, revealing a small strip of bright blue sky. She blinked, dazzled by the light, and raised a hand to rub her eyes. Anna wondered why she was lying on the floor. She placed her hand on the ground beneath her and was surprised to find grass tickling her fingertips. Something hard dug into the back of Anna's head, and upon closer investigation she realized that it was her hair, pulled back into a ponytail. Anna groaned and sat up, and as she did so she was struck by a surprising realization that she had no idea whatsoever as to where she was or how she had gotten there. She had no idea who she was or who her family and friends were, and she definitely had no idea as to what the shuck was going on. Anna started slightly as the strange word popped into her head, as if completely natural. She whispered it to herself and found that the word rolled off her tongue nicely, and saying it brought a sense of safety and a feeling of being at home. Anna had resumed her position of lying on the ground when she had made her discovery of her total memory loss, and she now hauled herself back up into a sitting position. Anna's eyes widened as she realized that she was part a large circle of about 30 people. All of them were guys, some of them still lying on the ground, blinking perplexedly, and some looking around as she was. Anna brushed stray bits of her hair back from her forehead, noticing absently that she had absolutely no notion of what color it was. She dismissed this thought. Anna stood up shakily, and most of the boys followed her, till they were standing in a ring.

"Where are we?" Anna asked the group at large, not expecting an answer. She was surprised by the sound of her own voice, as it was lower than she'd expected it to be.

"The Glade," called out one of the boys. Anna turned to look at him. He was wearing a look of astonishment at what had just come out of his mouth. "I mean," he said hurriedly, "We could be anywhere."

"The Glade," Anna murmured. Like the other strange word, it felt natural on her lips, like she had said it many times before. "No," she told the boy. "I think you're right. That's where we are."

Anna glanced upwards and noticed abruptly that the sun was high up in the sky, and judging from its position, it was about two in the afternoon. She realized that they would need to group up quickly and find the necessary things for surviving in this place. She clapped her hands once.

"Alright," she said loudly. "We need to split up and explore this place. We'll meet up back here in half an hour."

"How do we know when it's been half an hour?" one boy called out. Anna thought about this.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I guess I can just yell for you all to get back here when I think it's been half an hour." The boys seemed to be okay with this, despite the fact that Anna had just established a leadership role for herself without really consulting the group as a whole. She broke them up into six groups of five, as there were exactly thirty people. Anna was in a group consisting of a boy with a mop of curly red hair, one with darting blue eyes and unkempt black hair, a kid whose straight blond bangs almost covered his eyes and a boy with acne speckling his nose. Anna introduced herself to the group and learned their names as well. She and her new group mates wandered off into the direction of a peculiar shiny thing on the ground in the middle of the Glade. When they reached it, the kid with the messy black hair who had introduced himself as Gally stepped forward and peered into the metal-plated crater. He let out a laugh and turned back to the group, grinning.

"There are boxes and boxes of stuff in there," he reported in his scratchy voice. Anna and the others looked into the hole as well, and they all gave small cries of relief and joy as they saw what was inside of it. There were crates of food, of tools, of fabric and first-aid supplies and boards and paper. There was even a large cage that appeared to have two live pigs inside of it.

"Well, this covers pretty much everything," Anna decided, smiling hugely. "Hey!" she yelled over her shoulder. "C'mere! We found something!"

The other groups jogged over to her and she was met with confusion and concern.

"What is it?" asked a boy with shaggy blond hair and bright blue eyes. His voice was thick with an accent that Anna didn't recognize.

"Supplies," Anna responded, gesturing down at the array of boxes. The blond boy leaned forwards to get a better look. His eyes lit up when he was able to see the contents of the strange metal box.

"This is bloody amazing!" he cried, grinning at Anna.

"Bloody…" she whispered under her breath, knitting her eyebrows. She looked up quickly, hoping that the boy hadn't noticed. He seemed too busy talking with the other members of Anna's group. The boys chattered happily amongst themselves, all of them visibly relieved.

"We've gotta get this shuck stuff out of the box," Anna said loudly. There was a chorus of agreement, and Anna noted that none of them commented on her use of the new vocabulary. Working as a team, the boys and Anna lifted the crates out of the box, and within fifteen minutes it was all unloaded.

Anna surveyed their work approvingly.

"Great job, guys," she said. "Now let's drag it all to a storage place or something. We can't leave it out here in case it rains." The boys muttered agreement, and in an hour or so the crates had been unpacked into the various buildings. They put the pigs in the barn, the food in a small area with the necessary food preservation equipment, and the clothes and stuff in the two-story building that looked like it could serve as a place for them to sleep at night. By the time they were finished, Anna figured that it was about three or four in the afternoon.

"What should we do now?" she asked the group at large. They thought for a moment.

"We should try and set this place up for us to live in," suggested a tall Asian boy who looked to be about fifteen.

"What do you mean?" Anna asked him.

"Well," he said, thinking about this. "Like, we need to be able to stay here long-term. There's no telling when we'll be able to get out of this shuck place." Anna nodded.

"Yeah," she agreed. "Sounds good. Let's do it."

The boys put themselves to work setting up a place to sleep, making dinner out of the meager canned food they'd been given, and trying to plant the seeds that had been found in the supplies. Anna decided to work with the kids who were trying to plant the crops, and though the backbreaking task of planting corn, carrots, potatoes, and various grains was hard, Anna thought it was sort of a relaxing job to do. Anna was relieved, however, when two hours had gone by and she felt herself getting hungry. She stood up painfully and assessed the work done by her and her fellow farmers. Anna felt rather disappointed in the four or five messy rows of soon-to-be crops that were the fruit of their labors, but she pushed this thought from her mind.

"Alright," she announced, clapping her hands once. "Let's go and see if they've made dinner."

Anna poked the slimy mass on her plate, shuddering when it jiggled away from her touch and bounced back into place. This congealed ball of meat and who-knows-what-else was what she was expected to eat for her dinner. _Dave_ (whom Anna had heard was the new leader in the kitchen) _surely could have done better than this,_ Anna thought to herself, poking the blobby thing on her plate once more.

A voice broke through her moody thoughts.

"Can I sit here?"

Anna looked up to see the boy with the longish blond hair whom she'd met earlier. She scooted over, making room on the bench.

"Sure," she replied. He sat to her right, placing his tray of the same indescribable goop on the table. He looked at it distastefully.

"You'd think," he said, "that the people who volunteered to work in the bloody kitchen would have some amount of talent in that field." Anna laughed.

"You'd think," she agreed. "But there's really no way of knowing, is there?" She sighed, her mood suddenly gloomy. The boy pondered this.

"I guess," he replied softly. "Why do you think we're here, anyway?"

Anna shrugged.

"Oh, I'm Newt, by the way," he added suddenly. He sighed in response to Anna's momentary look of surprise that was quickly masked by casual expression. "Yes," he said exasperatedly. "Like the little amphibian. That's my name, okay?"

"Right," Anna said. "Sorry."

"It's alright," Newt responded. "It's just that it's been one bloody day and I've had to explain this to about twenty different people."

"Sorry," Anna repeated. "I guess that _would_ be annoying."

"What's your name?" Newt asked her in his interesting accent.

"Anna," she replied, smiling. Newt laughed.

"Shuck it, I was hoping your name would be Frog or Lizard or something so I could have some fun too." Anna grinned at this.

"I guess you're out of luck, then," she told him. Newt returned her grin and Anna could tell that he wanted to be friends, and she was glad, because Anna could already see that friends were going to be the most important part of her new life here.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi again! Like I said before, I'm uploading seven chapters at once, so I won't be saying a lot until chapter 8.**

 **So far, I'm just sort of trying to describe how the Gladers turn the Glade into the place that it becomes in the Maze Runner trilogy.**

 **\- Plerfstacks :)**

Chapter 2

Anna and Newt chatted aimlessly for about a half hour as they pretended to be enjoying their meal for Dave's sake. As Anna got up from the table, she heard a loud grinding noise which she wasn't sure how to describe. She turned her head, alarmed, and saw to her shock that the big openings in the walls of the Glade were _moving,_ without a trace of machinery anywhere that Anna could see. She watched, spellbound, as the walls met and shuddered to a stop, leaving the Glade in astonished silence. After a few moments, Anna got a hold of herself. She realized glumly that that hadn't been the most unbelievable thing that had happened that day, so Anna, along with the rest of the boys, decided to call it a night.

The Gladers, as they had decided to call themselves, gave Anna one of the rooms in the two story building that they'd named the Homestead. She obliged, as she would much rather sleep on a bed than on the hard ground with a jacket for a blanket, or, if she were lucky, a small blanket, which had arrived among the supplies they had received in the Box. The beds in the Homestead already had them. Luckily, their meager supplies didn't matter too much, as it was warm that night. Anna wondered what would happen when it got cold.

She didn't have anything to change into, so she took off her shoes, pulled down the sheets of her bed, and let her hair out of its ponytail. She was surprised to see a shock of bright red hair spill down her shoulders and onto her back, coming almost to her waist. Anna raked her fingers through her hair, eliminating a few of the tangles that had accumulated. She wished that she had a hairbrush. Suddenly there was a knock on Anna's door, and a familiar accented voice called,

"Can I come in?"

Anna sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed.

"Yeah," she called back. Newt stepped in the room, looking awkward.

"I just came in to tell you that Minho tried the shower handle and it turns out that we have running water in this place," he told her. Anna smiled at this.

"Awesome," she said appreciatively. "I'd been worrying about that."

"Me, too," Newt agreed, half-smiling. He turned to go, but Anna stopped him.

"Wait," she said. "I have an idea." She got up from her bed and walked out of the room and into the hallway. "There are light bulbs on the ceiling here, and I didn't look too hard for a switch cause I didn't think they would work. But if the showers do, then…" Anna found a light switch and flicked it. The light bulbs on the ceiling flickered slightly, and then illuminated the room with a soft yellow glow. Newt gave a small sound of surprise and appreciation.

"I can't believe that bloody worked," he murmured. "I'll go and spread the news, then." And with that, Newt turned and walked out.

Anna decided the next morning that she was going to send people to explore whatever was outside of the huge openings in the walls of the Glade, which had opened up again at sunrise. She called the Gladers over to the middle of the Glade, where the Box was. They gathered around her, murmuring amongst themselves. Anna decided to cut right to the chase.

"I've decided to send some of you shanks out of this place to explore whatever's out there." Anna noticed absently that she was beginning to use those strange vocabulary words without really thinking about it. She dismissed this thought almost the moment it popped into her head. She had more important things to work on. "Do we have volunteers?"

A few hands were raised, but most of the Gladers remained standing with both arms hanging at their sides. Anna counted the hands.

"Six," she muttered to herself. Addressing the group, she called out, "Alright, guys, you six are gonna be exploring today. When we establish jobs and stuff later, maybe that can be yours. Sound good?" The six volunteers murmured assent, somewhat nervously. "Can you come on forward so I can see you?" Anna asked. They stepped towards her and out of the crowd. Minho, a kid named George that she didn't know much about, Matt, Rob, Dan, and Newt had stepped up. She looked at them each and nodded.

"Alright," she said. "You shanks can go out and explore now, but don't forget to bring lunch with you. You _need_ to be back before sunset, though; because I don't want you trapped behind those shuck Doors."

The group of six gave nods of agreement, and with packed lunches courtesy of Dave, they headed out. Anna watched the back of Newt's blond head as he jogged through the Doors and felt a pang of worry. Somehow she knew that there was something to be feared beyond those walls, and she didn't want her only friend to become victim to it.

Anna fretted all day, waiting for the exploration group to return. She managed to sort of set up a system of jobs throughout the Glade, and set the Gladers to work planting crops, cooking meals, adding on to the Homestead, and tending to the two pigs. She herself wandered around the Glade, supervising the work being done and helping with the jobs as best she could. Anna was preoccupied however, glancing up at the sky every few minutes, worrying about what was going on with the team she'd sent out of the Glade. About twenty minutes before sunset, they returned, panting, through the East Door. Anna practically sprinted over to them to see what had happened.

"A maze," Minho puffed, bent double, his hands on his knees. "It's a shucking maze. We barely made it out."

"Water," Newt panted. "I've been running all day. Someone bring me some bloody water." Anna yelled for one of the Gladers milling about to come bring them some water. The boy returned a few moments later with a pitcher, which was passed around the group and was empty within seconds. Anna took the empty pitcher from Matt and tossed it on the grass.

"What did you find?" she asked.

"Like Minho said," George answered. "It's a maze. And we found a couple weird signs on the walls that say World in Catastrophe, Killzone Experiment Department. That's pretty much it."

"Hmm," Anna muttered. "That's weird. Well, you guys did a good job. At least now we sort of know what we're up against."

"Yeah," agreed Rob, nodding sarcastically. "We're up against a huge maze with shucking hundred-foot-high walls and no visible exit."

"That's right," Anna said, unfazed by Rob's remark. "We've gotta just work with what we've got and not get discouraged."

"Hear, hear," Newt agreed, giving her a weary smile. Anna returned it, pleased that her pep talk had worked.

"Alright," she said, clapping her hands together. "Let's get to bed."

Over the course of the next few weeks nothing very exciting happened. Anna successfully got the Glade in working order, setting up permanent jobs for each Glader, and occasionally making up jobs for the kids who somewhat lacked in talent. She spent her days helping the others with their assigned tasks, waiting for the Runners to get back, taking inventory on the supplies, and the like. Anna was relatively pleased with the system that she'd set up, and finally the Glade was operating like a well-oiled machine, rather than the rusty, awkward one that they'd been before.

Anna kept track of the days that had passed since she'd started her new life by scratching a little tally mark on the wall of her room in the Homestead every morning. One morning, as she was dragging her little pocket knife that she used or this purpose down the wood of the wall, she noticed that there were thirty marks, counting the one she'd made. Anna realized that they'd been there for a month, give or take a few days. She heaved a sigh, feeling a pang of hopelessness at how little they'd accomplished in a month's time. Anna shook this feeling off after a moment and headed outside to start her day.

Anna's day went mostly as planned, until about noon. As she was walking over to the fields where the Track-Hoes worked, to see what progress they were making, a loud siren-like noise began to resonate throughout the Glade, causing Anna and many of the boys to cry out in surprise. Anna stood in place, hands clamped to her ears, as the Glade dissolved into chaos. Many of the boys went to her for explanation, but Anna was just as confused as everyone else. After about half an hour of the deafening siren, the noise stopped abruptly. Anna could suddenly hear her blood pumping through her ears and she wasn't sure what exactly to say. Then a voice cut through the silence.

" _Someone get me out of here!"_

Anna's head jerked in the direction of the Box. Then, realizing that there was a shucking _person_ trapped inside it, she ran over and peered inside. There was a boy standing in the Box, looking up at her. He looked about fifteen years old, but his black hair already had specks of gray in it. Anna jumped down into the Box with him, not really thinking as she did it, and she felt the whole Box shift slightly, like an elevator.

"Hello," Anna said awkwardly. "I'm Anna." The boy stared at her, his face tinged with green. Anna figured that hers had been, too, when she had first shown up in the Glade. "Um, what's your name?" she asked. The boy didn't say anything. "Alright, then…" Anna muttered. "C'mon, Greenie. Let's get out of here." Anna figured that if he wouldn't tell her his name, she would make up a name for him. "Hey!" she yelled over her shoulder. "Get us out of this shucking Box!"

The Gladers looked down at Anna and the Greenie, seeming unsure what to do.

"Get a rope, slinthead!" Anna heard Gally's scratchy voice call out. A moment later a rope was dropped in and Anna gestured for the Greenie to take it. He did so shakily, but held on tight when he was pulled up. Then Anna took the rope and the Gladers yanked her up into the Glade. As Anna placed her feet on the ground, the Gladers formed a circle around the new kid, who seemed very intimidated.

"Can you tell us your name?" Anna asked again, slightly exasperated at his unwillingness to talk.

"It's Clint," the boy answered finally. "Who are you people? Where am I? What's going on?"

"Slow down," Anna told him. "This is the Glade. You're one of us now, and we don't know why you don't remember anything, so don't even ask. You're the first and possibly only new kid we'll ever get, so this is a learning experience for all of us."

"Okay…" answered Clint slowly. "Why were you calling me Greenie?"

"You wouldn't tell me your shucking name, you shank. So I nicknamed you for the time being."

"And what are those weird words that you guys use?"

"I don't know," Anna replied. "You ask too many questions." She addressed the Gladers. "I'm gonna give the Greenie a tour, so you all get back to work."

There was a murmur of assent and some disappointment at having to go work when there was something interesting going on. Anna disregarded this and looked at Clint.

"Alright, Greenie," she said. "Where do I start… Well, like I said, this place is called the Glade, and we all live here together. Those openings in the walls are the Doors that lead into the Maze. We all—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Clint interrupted her. "A _maze?_ " Anna nodded.

"Yes. A maze. Can I continue?"

"Yeah. Sorry."

Anna went on to explain the different jobs that were available for him to try out (she stressed the point to him that a job in the kitchen would be appreciated, as they really needed a new Cook), and how each job had a leader called the Keeper, whom he would report to each morning. She explained how she and the Keepers formed the Council, which made all of the important decisions. She then warned him not to leave the Glade, because the Doors closed at night and no one knew what was out there. Clint adopted a completely astonished expression throughout the lecture. When Anna was finished, he nodded slowly.

"Okay…" he said. "When will I get my job?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "I think we'll have you try out each one till you fit in with something." Clint nodded.

"Alright, then," he agreed.

Anna spent the rest of the day showing the Greenie the ropes. She started him out with the Track-Hoes, as that seemed as good a place as any. Though Zart and Clint hit it off immediately, Clint proved to be hopeless at farming. Anna decided to try the Builders the next day. By this point the Runners had returned and Anna decided to dismiss the Gladers from their jobs. After this, Anna decided to meet Newt in the Map Room, simply because she hadn't really had a chance to talk to him in a while.

"Hey," she said, walking through the door. Newt jumped slightly, looking up from the map that he was drawing. His shoulders relaxed when he saw Anna standing in the doorframe.

"You startled me," he said breathlessly.

"Sorry," Anna apologized. She walked over to his chair and looked over his shoulder at the map. "What are you up to?" she asked him.

"Drawing," he answered, gesturing to his map. "I did section five today. Minho did six, and I think he's gonna show up here soon." Anna nodded.

"Okay," she said.

Anna pulled up a chair and sat beside Newt, and the two of them just sat like that for a while. Anna watched Newt draw the map, his slender fingers guiding the marker across the page. She almost didn't hear the door open a few minutes later when Minho walked in to work on his job.

"Hey," he greeted them, running a hand through his tousled hair. "I don't see you around here often, Anna." She shrugged.

"Yeah," she agreed. "I decided to pay you Runners a visit."

Minho scoffed.

"More like you were bored and had nothing better to do," he accused her, smirking.

"No," she replied defensively. "I just don't ever get a chance to talk to you guys. You're always in the Maze."

"Sure."

"Well, I'm here now," she said. "Now get to work on your shucking maps."

"Aye aye, captain," he said, saluting her. Anna smiled slightly, resuming watching Newt draw. He finished the last line and placed his map in the trunk with all the other ones. Newt and Anna lingered to keep Minho company as he completed his, and the three wandered out into the Glade.

"I'm gonna go to bed," Minho yawned. "See ya."

"'Night," Anna called after him. She looked at Newt. Struck with a sudden impulse, she said,

"Do you want to go out into the forest with me and take a walk or something? I know you never really get a chance to hang out around the Glade." To her surprise, he nodded.

"Sure," he answered, smiling. He raised a hand to brush his long blond hair out of his eyes. "Let's go."

Anna and Newt walked the length of the Glade to reach the small forest near the West Door. Anna led the way, having been in the forest before. She led them to a small clearing surrounded by trees, with a little creek running over the ground. Newt looked around, smiling appreciatively.  
"It's nice here," he murmured. Anna sat down on a log lying on the ground. She patted the spot to her right, and Newt joined her. The two of them sat in blissful silence, enjoying being able to actually have a moment of relaxation in the hectic mess that was the Glade. Suddenly, Newt leapt to his feet and began to crash around, shaking his left foot wildly. Anna jumped up, trying to get him to calm down.

"What's wrong?" she yelled, grabbing his shoulders and forcing him to stop jumping about. He looked at her, breathing heavily.

"There was a shucking… beetle… crawling up my leg," he explained. "It was bloody huge." Anna rolled her eyes.

"Come on, Newt," she muttered.

"There it goes!" Newt cried, pointing. A thing with a small red light attached to it was crawling madly over the ground, waving its light around. It looked like a lizard, but bigger. Anna reached down and grabbed it around its middle, and she held the wiggling thing at arm's length to examine it. It had the word _WICKED_ written in large lettering on its back. The thing twisted and turned in her grasp, but when she didn't let go, it swung its head around and bit Anna's finger.

"Ow!" she cried, releasing the creature. It scuttled away into the forest. She examined her injured finger. It was bleeding a little, but she'd be fine. Anna stuck it in her mouth and turned back to Newt. "What _was_ that?" she asked him.

"You're asking me?" he said, shrugging. "All I know is that that thing was crawling up my leg and I thought it was a beetle, with shucking blades on its feet, or something."

"A beetle blade," Anna decided.

"Yeah," Newt agreed. "A beetle blade."

Anna and Newt decided to get to bed after this slight fiasco. Anna departed from Newt in the Homestead, where he and the rest of the Runners shared a room. Anna walked to hers, trying to understand the purpose of the beetle blades. It was only as she was just about to drift off that she came to the foggy conclusion that they had cameras. The little red light was a camera. She wondered absently how this revelation had come to her so subconsciously, but dozed off as soon as she began to think about it.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Anna informed the rest of the Glade about the beetle blades the next morning. They seemed interested in how Anna thought that they were cameras, and much speculation ensued about who exactly was watching them. Anna didn't participate in these discussions. She didn't really want to talk about the people who could be observing her every move at that very moment. Anna thought it was creepy.

She decided to work alongside the Builders today, as they were adding on a new section of the Homestead and needed all the help they could get. However, Anna was finding this difficult, as the tip of her index finger had swollen up to twice its normal size. She fumbled with the boards, nails, and hammer as she tried and failed multiple times to drive a nail into the slab of wood, hammering herself about twelve times in the process. Gally, who was the Keeper of the Builders, walked up to her with a confused expression on his face.

"What's up, Anna?" he asked. "You don't usually have this much trouble hammering a nail."

"Sorry, Gally," she apologized. "It's just that the beetle blade thing that I told you about bit my finger and now it's all shucking swollen up."

"It can't be that bad," he wheedled. "Show me." Anna displayed her huge fingertip. Gally's eyebrows shot up about two inches.

"Shuck," he said. "That _is_ all swollen up. I don't think you should be working with us today. You just go and get that figured out." Anna nodded without complaint, as she had been thinking the same thing all along. She wandered out into the Glade, unsure of whom to go ask for assistance. Anna walked aimlessly for a few minutes before running into Clint, who was trying out work with the Slicers. His face was paler than usual and his mouth was pressed in a tight line, like he was trying not to vomit. When he laid eyes on Anna, his features relaxed in relief, and he strode over.

"Oh, man, Anna," he exhaled, wiping sweat from his forehead. "You just saved my life. Working with the Slicers is the worst job yet, and yesterday I was with the Sloppers, so that's saying something."

"Clint," said Anna, cutting right to the chase. "Do you know of anyone who can help me with this?" She held up her finger.

"Well…" he muttered. "I'm new, so I don't know a lot of people, but I could maybe work something out for you." Anna was apprehensive about letting the Greenie mess with her injured finger, but she gave in. Clint did seem confident that he could do something.

"Where are all the first-aid type things?" he asked. Anna shrugged.

"I don't know," she admitted. "We've never needed them before. Probably there are some in the supply closet." Clint nodded.

"Okay," he said. "Let's go there, then. You lead the way."

Anna and Clint walked to the Homestead, where the Builders still worked. Gally shot her a questioning glance when she walked past with the newbie, but kept his mouth closed. When Anna opened the supply closet, Clint dug around in there for a while until he surfaced holding a small bag that looked unimpressive. Anna ushered him into one of the empty rooms, where he set down the bag on the bed and opened it, revealing an array of first-aid supplies. He gestured for Anna to hold out her finger. She did so, and Clint wrapped it in gauze, using up a whole entire roll. When he was finished, Anna asked,

"Why did you do that?"

"So nothing can get in," Clint explained. "I don't have any sort of antibacterial ointment that I can use, so that'll have to do." Anna nodded. She clapped Clint on the shoulder with her good hand.

"I think we've just found a suitable job for you, Greenie."

Clint settled down quite nicely in his new job, which everyone called the Med-Jack. By the end of the day, he had set up an entire little office in the empty room in the Homestead. Anna didn't have much to do the whole day, as she didn't want to dig around in the dirt or move boards or pick up trash for fear of getting her finger infected. She instead wandered over to the Kitchen to see what Dave was up to. Anna was met with a wave of a very strong smell resembling rotten meat.

"What's up, Dave?" she asked him, trying not to choke. He grinned at her.

"I'm cooking," he answered, gesturing to the pot of something foul brewing on the stove. Anna nodded casually.

"That's nice," she said. "Alright, I've gotta go do… uh… important leader-y stuff. Just wanted to check up on you. Bye!" She walked out as slowly as she could bear, and then ran for it. She made it all the way to the Map Room before letting her breath out in one big sigh of relief. She leaned against the door, catching her breath. Anna decided then to take the day off.

She spent the rest of the afternoon lying around in the Homestead, feeling bored. When the sun began to set, she got up out of her bed, grateful for something to do. Anna stood outside the East Door, waiting for the Runners. When they finally came sprinting through the Door, panting and brushing their sweaty hair out of their eyes, Anna was standing there waiting for a report.

"Hey, guys," she said. "How did it go?"

"Pretty well," Minho puffed.

"Nothing much bloody happened, Minho," Newt said irritably. "We ran around the buggin' Maze and then we came back." Anna stared at him.

"You okay?" she asked. He sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"I'm sorry, guys," he said. "I'm just bloody exhausted." He turned and walked off in the direction of the Map Room.

"I think you all need a day off," Anna said. They looked at her in surprise.

"But how are we gonna explore this place if we're sitting around here?" asked George.

"Maybe you could each get a different one," she suggested. "So we can still explore the Maze and you guys can just cover for the one who isn't there."

"Alright," Matt agreed. "Who should go first?" Anna looked them over.

"If it's alright with the rest of you, I think Newt is gonna crack if he doesn't get to rest. He'll go tomorrow and you guys can work out amongst yourselves who's going next." The other Runners didn't argue. They all filed off to the Map Room to draw their maps. Anna wandered off to bed and decided to skip dinner. She had had a rough day, and besides, being in the kitchen with Dave for just a few seconds had pretty much ruined her appetite for the rest of her life.

When Anna awoke the next morning, she realized that she hadn't told Newt not to go out that morning. She rushed out into the Glade and glanced around. After a few panicky seconds, her eyes fell upon Newt's slender silhouette walking towards the Kitchen.

"Newt!" she yelled. He started and turned around.

"What is it, Anna?" he called back. She gestured for him to come over to where she was standing so they wouldn't need to shout.

"Newt," she said once he was in earshot. "You don't have to go running today. We're giving you the day off." He looked surprised.

"That's okay…" he began, trailing off. He tried again. "It's fine, really. I'm okay." He tried to walk off again but Anna seized him by the shoulders and led him into the Homestead.

"I'm not gonna let you into the Maze," she said. "You just hang around and do whatever you want. You can run tomorrow." He nodded numbly.

"Okay, Anna," he said. "But honestly—"

"Shush," said Anna. "I don't want to hear any more." She turned around and walked out the door, leaving Newt standing there dumbfounded.

Anna spent the day helping out with all the odd jobs around the Glade, and when that was finished she wandered aimlessly with Newt and chatted about insignificant things. She could almost forget that she was trapped in a maze with thirty boys and none of them had any idea of what to do about it. It was nice to feel like a normal teenager who was hanging out with her friends.

The sun was about twenty minutes from setting when Anna heard her name being shouted from somewhere in the Glade.

"Yeah?" she called, glancing around. When she didn't see anyone, though her name was called periodically for the next ten seconds, she began to worry. Struck with a sudden impulse, she ran at top speed to the East Door, where the Runners returned every night. Though she didn't see anyone, the voice seemed to be louder there, so she stood outside the door and peered anxiously into the Maze. Suddenly, a figure emerged from the shadows and began making its way slowly to Anna. It was slightly misshapen, but when it got closer Anna could see that it was Minho. He was carrying George on his shoulder, who was hanging limply, his sneakers dragging in the dirt. Anna's eyes widened as she watched them numbly for a few seconds, but then she got a hold of herself and dashed into the Maze to help.

"Anna," Minho gasped. He had sweat glistening on his forehead and his hair stuck up every which way. Anna could tell from the look in his eyes that there was something horribly wrong. She didn't say anything, however, as she grabbed George's left arm and hung it around her own shoulder, taking some of the weight from Minho. He nodded his thanks and together they dragged George back to the Glade. They were met with confusion as a crowd gathered around them, peppering them with questions. Anna ignored these and sent somebody to go get Clint. In the meantime, she took Minho aside to ask him what had happened.

"I don't know," he said, his voice cracking. "I heard George call for help, so I went to look for him. I couldn't find him anywhere, until he came sprinting towards me and yelled for me to run. He was being chased by a big blobby thing like a slug, but with mechanical arms that had knives and lights and claws and needles. It was pretty slow, but George tripped over a rock and before I had time to save the poor shank it was jabbing at him with its needles. It just rolled away after it had attacked him, like its job was finished or something."

Anna was completely aghast at his story. Somehow she couldn't fathom that there were any dangers in this place other than the usual survival stuff, like starvation and disease. However, the true meaning of Minho's words settled on her soon enough. The Gladers were not alone.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The monsters in the Maze, which Anna and the others called Grievers (for no reason that Anna was sure of), turned out to be a much bigger deal than Anna had suspected. The Runners practically sprinted out of the Maze at the end of the day, not wanting to be left out at night. The Gladers lived in fear of the Maze, of the darkness that waited to swallow them up if they took a wrong step. As for George, he wasn't getting much better. He hadn't moved from his bed in the Homestead for three days, and Anna spent most of her time worrying about him. Clint had been trying everything that he knew of to cure what the Griever had done to him, but his efforts were fruitless. Anna was more stressed than she had been in her entire salvageable memory. To top it off, they had received a new Greenie the day after George had been attacked, and the Gladers were trying to figure out what to do with him. He'd said his name was Ben, and he looked to be about fifteen years old. Anna had given the job of training the Greenie to the others, however, as she had bigger problems.

The thing that was bothering Anna the most, however, was something that Clint had showed her earlier. He had told her that he had found something weird in the supplies that came with Ben, and that she should come and look. Upon reaching the Homestead, Clint had procured a medical syringe filled with blue liquid, and told Anna that it hadn't been labeled. She had been thinking about this for days, and was still not sure what to do with it. Should they take their chances with it and possibly poison George, or worse? Or should they let nature take its course and leave him on the bed in the Homestead? Both options were horrible to think about. After a while, though, Anna decided to take their chances. From what she figured, George was going to die if they left him alone, but there was only a chance he would if they tried this new stuff they'd found.

"Clint," she said, seeing him standing near George's room. "I think we should go ahead and do it. He'll die anyway. We might as well give it our best shot."

Clint gave a stiff nod and went to go get the mysterious unlabeled medicine. Uncapping it, he injected George with its contents, his hands shaking slightly. When he'd finished, he sat back down in a chair and rested his head in his hands, his face hidden from view. Anna understood what he was feeling. Now, if George were to die, they'd both feel solely responsible. All they could do was hope.

Anna found it strangely therapeutic to kneel on the ground digging up carrots for hours on end, so that's what she decided to do with the next few days. The Track-Hoe job also appealed to her because the Fields were the farthest place in the Glade from the Homestead. Ever since she and Clint had given George the unidentified medicine they'd found, his agonized wails had been periodically cutting through the air, piercing the somewhat quiet atmosphere of the Glade.

Anna, along with Zart and the other Track-hoes, managed to unearth all of the carrots, potatoes, and turnips previously residing in the dark topsoil of the Fields. Dave wasn't sure of what to do with these newfound assets, so he did what Dave did best: throw everything in a pot and call it dinner. The Gladers did their best to choke it down, as they did with everything Dave made.

Anna found it hard to focus on the toxic sludge that she was intended to shove down her throat, though, because her mind was preoccupied with thoughts of George, and his shuck screaming didn't do much to take her mind off of it. She could tell that the other Runners were worried about him, too, by the way that their demeanor was even more quiet and isolated than it usually was. She decided not to interrupt them, as they were liable to react badly. The Runners were being overworked in the absence of George, and they were all on edge and likely to snap at anyone who interrupted them. There had been a few incidents like this, and after a couple hours nobody was getting within ten feet of the huddle of Runners that were always skirting the outside of the crowd.

Anna blinked, jolting herself out of her thoughts. She stared at her plate of sticky, unrecognizable goop, wondering sullenly if she could just push it around with a fork to make it look like she'd eaten it, and then throw the rest away. She was still on the fence when a voice rang out through the mass of Gladers.

" _Anna!"_ Her head snapped towards the general direction of the voice. Clint was hurtling towards her, his expression urgent. Anna felt dread boil up inside of her, like she had swallowed a heavy rock. She managed to maintain an expression that seemed in control, however, because she felt that she couldn't freak out in front of the group that she led.

"Clint," she said, standing up and intercepting him. "What's wrong?"

"Anna," he repeated, catching his breath. "You've got to come quick." Anna knit her eyebrows.

"Slow down," she told him. "What happened?"

"There's no time," Clint insisted. "George went nuts; he escaped the Homestead and ran off and now I can't find him and I think he's gonna head for the Maze." Anna took a moment to comprehend the situation. Then suddenly it clicked and she grabbed Clint by the arm, tugging him along as quickly as she could. He made a noise that was somewhere between surprised and indignant, trying to regain his footing. Anna let go of his arm and came to a stop in front of the Homestead.

"Where did you see him last?" she asked.

"I told you," said Clint. "I turned my back for one second and when I looked again, he was running out the door. I looked for him everywhere, but I can't find him. He's completely gone."

Anna glanced around the Glade, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Suddenly a figure flashed by in the corner of her vision. She turned to look, and what she saw was an unhealthily thin boy standing about twenty feet away, his back facing them.

"Clint," she whispered. "Turn around." Clint did so, making a small gasp when he saw what Anna was seeing. She placed a finger on her lips, treading softly forward. Anna was frightened, to put it mildly, of approaching a possibly mentally unstable person who has just been through a traumatic experience. She forged on, however, and she and Clint were about three feet away when George turned his head. He was haggard and pale, a stark contrast to the burly, fit figure he had possessed just a week earlier.

"George," Anna murmured, keeping her voice soft and soothing. "George, you're going to be okay, alright? You're gonna come back with Clint and me." He shook his head, his eyes filled with pure terror.

"No," he rasped. "I can't come with you. I'm never going to be the same as before. I've…" he paused, his eyes welling up with tears. "I've seen stuff that I'll never forget. The shuck pictures that went through my head…" He trailed off. "I'm sorry, guys," he whispered finally. Before Anna or Clint had a chance to say anything, or stop him, he had already turned around and began to sprint towards the gaping mouth of the East Door. Once Anna had gotten a hold of herself and started running after him, Clint running beside her, it was too late. George had hurled himself through the Door and turned the corner. By the position of the sun it was almost sunset, and Anna, numb with shock, whispered,

"Clint, stop. He's gone." Clint halted, his eyes round with the enormity of the events that had just unfolded.

"Anna," he said. "We have to go get him. We can't just leave him behind. We just can't." Before Anna could say anything, a rumbling filled the air as if in response to his words. The Doors were closing. And George wasn't coming back.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Anna called an emergency Council meeting later that evening. They met in the Homestead, most of them talking among themselves, confused as to what was really going on.

"Hey, guys," Anna said in an attempt to make them stop talking. "Guys? Can I get your attention up here please?" She frowned when her words received little to no response. "Hey!" she finally yelled angrily. "Shut up!" The Keepers turned their heads in her direction, looking startled. She glared at them.

"If you would kindly _listen to me,_ I can tell you what's happening." They looked at her expectantly. Anna then proceeded to tell them the story, beginning to end, punctuated only by Clint adding other details, ashen-faced at reliving their encounter. When she was finished, she was met with silence. Anna was about to say something to break it when a piercing scream that made Anna's blood run cold rang through the little room in the Homestead. Some of the Gladers in the room jumped in surprise, beginning to mutter among themselves again. Anna shushed them.

"It came from the Maze," she said with a certainty, her face drained of color. Nobody spoke. Then Newt raised a shaky hand.

"We have to make sure this doesn't happen again," he said. Anna agreed.

"We need rules around here," she suggested. "Any ideas?"

Clint raised his hand.

"Don't hurt another Glader," he said. "There's enough danger in this shucking place without having to look over our shoulders constantly to make sure nobody's gonna jump us." Anna nodded.

"Yeah," she said. "Good one." Gally volunteered next.

"We should always do our part here. We can't afford to have anyone slacking, or we'd never get anything done," he said hoarsely.

"And never, ever go into the Maze u

nless you're a Runner," said Zart.

Anna wrote these three rules down on a spare piece of paper and hung it up in the hallway of the Homestead. The meeting adjourned, a solemn silence hanging like a dark cloud over the group as they walked off.

The next morning, Anna was up before the Runners. She hadn't slept well the night before, and needed just to get up and face her problems. Anna wandered around the Glade, waiting for the Doors to open and the Runners to start packing. After a couple minutes, she was joined by Minho and Newt, who were always the first ones to get up.

"Hey, Anna," said Minho, lacking his usual snarky attitude. Newt just nodded. Anna could tell that he was stressed out, and the fact that one of his friends had just been killed by Grievers probably didn't help much. Anna placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Newt," she said. "You can take a day off if you want to. You've been through a lot." He shook his head.

"No," he said miserably. "Running helps take my mind off of things." Anna nodded sympathetically.

"I'll be waiting for you guys at the end of the day," she said. "There's not much to do around here."

"I've gotta pack my stuff," Minho told her apologetically. "See ya later, Anna."

"I have to also," Newt said. "Sorry." He turned and followed Minho to the supply room.

Anna resumed wandering around the Glade mindlessly, as it was the only thing she could think of to do. She was just wondering if she should sneak into the Kitchen and grab breakfast before Dave showed up when she heard Newt's voice from the direction of the East Door.

"Oh, my God."

She turned to see what the issue could be. Newt was about two steps into the Maze, swaying slightly where he stood. Anna ran over to see what the matter was. Minho joined her a couple seconds later.

"Newt, what is it?" she asked. He turned to look at her, his eyes round and his face tinged green, moving out of the way so she could see what he was looking at. Anna's eyes widened. She heard Minho gag behind her, and she swore disbelievingly under her breath as she tried to comprehend what she was seeing. Lying on the ground before them, surrounded by a pool of dark liquid, was George's disembodied head.

Anna felt lightheaded, her mind a jumble of incoherent thoughts. She stumbled backwards, telling herself that she wasn't going to faint like some weak little person who didn't singlehandedly supervise a massive group of teenaged boys. Anna felt Newt's hand grasp her own, keeping her on her feet.

"We can't tell the others about this," she finally got out, managing to control her gag reflex. Newt and Minho nodded, both of their faces pale.

"Where are we gonna put it?" Newt whispered. Anna suddenly realized that she was gripping his hand like a lifeline, and his fingers were turning purple. She let go quickly, wiping her sweat off of her palm.

"I don't know," she answered honestly.

"Well, we can't go ask the shuck Sloppers to clean it up, now can we?" Minho snapped, having gotten a hold of himself.

"We need somebody to be in charge of this, just in case it happens again," said Newt. "They can have another job the rest of the time." Anna nodded.

"I'll go round some people up," she agreed.

The problem was resolved a lot quicker than Anna thought it would be. She found three guys who she figured were fit for this morbid job, and they cleaned everything up as well as they could. They constructed a little graveyard in the forest, which somebody with a very dark sense of humor nicknamed the Deadheads. The Gladers were informed of what had occurred, but Anna tried not to go into the gory details. She was having trouble with it herself; wanting to vomit every time she looked over at the Maze. Despite all this, however, Anna had pretty much gotten the Glade back in working order by that afternoon, when they got a new Greenie in the Box. He looked about sixteen years old, but his chin was already rough with dark stubble. He didn't talk much, and after giving him a brief tour, Anna still hadn't learned his name. She left him alone for the most part, and he stayed away from the group as much as he could.

By the time that the Runners had returned and the Doors had closed, Anna was completely worn out. Apparently this was more obvious than she thought, because when she got face-to-face for the first time that night with Newt, he told her in no uncertain terms that she was to go off to bed and he would supervise the Gladers. Though she protested quite a bit, she was secretly glad that Newt had stepped in. As she trudged off to her small room in the Homestead, Anna decided that she wasn't going to let a disaster like that happen again. The whole thing had been a nightmare, and she was glad it was over.

Anna woke up the next morning hoping that the day would pass without any noteworthy events. She hauled herself out of bed and trudged out the door to meet the Runners as they headed out.

"Hey, guys," she greeted them wearily, as they all huddled around the supply closet outside her room. A few of them nodded at her glumly, but that was it. Deciding to leave them alone, Anna snuck off to her room again, choosing to treat herself to another half hour of sleep.

Two hours later, Anna opened her eyes blearily, wondering what was going on. She realized suddenly that she had overslept, and ran outside to see what chaos the Gladers had caused. To her surprise, everyone was doing what they were supposed to. She was struck for the first time with the sense of how lucky she was that she was in charge of a well-behaved group of teenaged guys rather than a rowdy one.

Nothing much happened for the next week or so. The Glade functioned normally, the Gladers doing their jobs. The only interesting thing that had occurred was that they had acquired a new cook, coincidentally the Greenie, who was far more talented than the previous one. He had proved himself very useful in the workings of the Glade, as he was capable of cooking food that was edible. Dave had been demoted to "Assistant Chef who Doesn't Do Much But We Tell Him He Does So He'll Feel Better About Being Demoted". The Greenie had been nicknamed Frypan due to his success, and also because nobody knew his real name.

The Runners were depressed for a while, understandably, but their moods lightened noticeably when Anna recruited a new one, a tall, lean kid called Stephen, previously a Builder. They all made it their priority to rigorously train Stephen to be a Runner, as an attempt to distract themselves from the loss of George. Stephen could often be seen around the Glade with whichever Runner wasn't running that day, sprinting laps around the whole area, skirting the walls. He seemed to be enjoying his new position, however, and Anna figured that it had been a good decision to recruit him.

Life in the Glade slowed down to an almost relaxing pace. The Runners were running as usual, the Builders had added a new section to the Homestead, Frypan was running the Kitchen like a well-oiled machine, and everything was generally going smoothly. Anna had begun spending her days wandering around the Glade, looking for somebody who needed help with their job. She was relieved at this lack of tragic events and injury that usually filled her mind with worry, and she had almost begun to enjoy her time in the Glade.

Over the next couple months, two Greenies joined the Gladers; a kid called Caleb who was recruited for the Builders to replace Stephen, and another one called Jeff, who joined Clint as a Med-Jack.

One day, when the Box had come and gone, leaving an empty hole in its place, one of the Gladers approached Anna.

"Hey," he said. "What do you think is down there?" Anna shrugged, not having ever thought about this before.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I've never considered it." He looked down the shaft.

"What if we sent someone down there on a rope?" he asked. "Maybe there's a way out of here." Anna thought about this. She didn't want to take unnecessary risks, but if there was even a slight chance that they could get out, she wanted to try it.

"I'll think about it," she promised, making a mental note to call a Council meeting later that night.

Anna pored over this for the rest of the day, and by the time that the Council had made their decision, she had decided that she was all for it. If there was anyone who wanted to volunteer, she would send them down on a rope and they would report back what they'd found. What could go wrong?

It was more difficult than Anna had thought it would be to find a volunteer for the job, not because nobody wanted to but because _everybody_ wanted to. After an hour of choosing, Anna selected the kid who would be going down into the Box. He was a smallish kid, a Slopper, whom Anna could tell just wanted some recognition. His name was Jack, and his hand had practically shot up into the air when she had asked for volunteers.

The Builders had constructed a thick rope of the ivy that was plentiful around the Glade, and they had made a harness for Jack to wear. A crowd had gathered around the Box to watch, and Jack's face showed no sign of nervousness as he eagerly yanked on the harness. Anna was beginning to feel a slight twinge in the pit of her stomach, however—an uncomfortable feeling that something was going to go horribly wrong. Pushing away this negative thought, however, Anna watched the Builders lower Jack slowly into the gaping hole.

"Are you okay?" Anna asked once he'd disappeared from sight.

"Yeah," he called back. "I can't see much. Lower me down more." The team of people holding the rope complied, and Jack sank a foot or so lower into the pit. Jack's voice echoed once more up to the group of Gladers huddled around the Box.

"It's still too dark to—" he began, but was cut off. The Builders suddenly stumbled backwards, like they'd been pushed.

"What is it?" Anna asked in a panic.

"I don't know," Gally said. "It's like he just lost fifty pounds."

"Jack?" Anna called, fear rising up in her twice as fast when he didn't answer. "Pull him up." The Builders obeyed her, towing the rope up. Jack's messy mop of brown hair appeared over the edge. Anna was about to yell at him for scaring her like that when she noticed the expression of shock on his face and the hollow, blank look in his eyes. She stepped back, awash with dread. Before she could really comprehend, the rest of him was tugged onto the grass.

Anna felt her eyes widen, felt her meager lunch threatening to reappear. She stared at the ground in shock, clamping a hand to her mouth. Lying on the grass before them, blood pooling around it, was half of Jack. His legs were gone, fallen down into the pit somewhere. His body had been cut cleanly in two, and all that Anna could figure at that moment was that they weren't meant to go down through the Box Hole, and they never should have tried it in the first place.

The Baggers transported Jack's torso to the Deadheads, where they placed a sheet of glass over his grave with a message scratched into it:

 _Let this half-shank be a reminder to all:_

 _You can't escape through the Box Hole._

Over the next couple days, the Gladers sank into a lethargic routine of listlessly wandering about doing various jobs without thinking about it. They had been given hope, for a few short minutes, and it had been taken away from them, taking the life of one of their friends with it. This resulted in a thick cloud of depression to settle over the Glade, and Anna decided that they needed something to take their minds off of it.

On the third morning after Jack's failed attempt at escape, Anna gathered the Gladers together, including the Runners, and told them that they were going to be skipping work that day. Instead, they'd be playing kickball on the large grassy area outside the Homestead, and since they didn't have a ball, Frypan donated a stale loaf of bread to serve as one. They divided up into teams of seven, and held a tournament. Anna, Clint, Rob, Newt, Ben, Matt, and Gally made it to the second round before being beaten twenty to seventeen by Minho's team. Finally, at the end of the day, when everyone was filing off to bed, Anna felt pleased with herself for finally bringing an element of fun to the Glade.

 _Take that, Creators,_ Anna thought spitefully. _You can wipe our memories, trap us in a maze, and sic Grievers on us, but we've still managed to make the most of it._ And in the dying sun, the rumble of the closing Doors echoing around her, Anna smiled.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The months following passed uneventfully. Anna and the Gladers worked together to help keep the Glade in working order. The Runners went out every day to explore the Maze, though they never found much. They lost a few of their number to the Grievers, but they gained more in the Box every month. The population was growing, and while this meant that there were more mouths to feed and more space needed in the Homestead, it was overall a good thing for the Glade. More and more people were assigned to each job, and new tasks were thought up for those who… somewhat lacked in talent.

Anna's wall got more and more scratched up as the months went by, and, counting the scratches one morning, she realized that there were exactly four hundred marks on her wall. That was four hundred days of hard work, of stress, of wondering if she and her friends would survive another day. And while Anna longed for a normal life, she couldn't help but feel thankful for what she _had_ been given. Good friends, a place to stay, a cook that wasn't Dave, an entire legion of boys for her to supervise. Smiling to herself, Anna walked outside to meet the Runners.

"Hey, guys," she said sleepily.

"Hi, Anna," Minho responded, smirking at her. Newt just nodded, adjusting the straps of his backpack. Anna felt a twinge of sadness inside of her as she looked at him. He had been very quiet and subdued lately, ever since Stephen's untimely death a few weeks earlier. The grisly scene popped back into Anna's mind, and she pushed it out again, a wave of nausea passing over her as she recalled it.

"Have you got everything packed?" Anna asked, if only to break the silence.

"Yeah," said Minho. He glanced at Newt, who didn't offer an answer. "We both have," he supplied. Anna's brows knit as she looked at them.

"Are you guys okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine," said Newt, his voice hollow. He was refusing to make eye contact.

"Um, okay then," said Anna awkwardly. "You guys should get going." The two Runners nodded and walked off. Anna looked around for the rest of the Runners, but couldn't find them, so she contented herself with sitting in her bedroom and re-counting the marks on her wall. Once through with this, Anna walked back outside and joined the other Gladers, who had gotten up by then.

She chose to work with the Builders that day, as they needed all the help they could get. They had begun adding another section to the Homestead, as they had gotten new supplies and decided to use them for this purpose. Anna worked all day, lifting heavy slabs of wood and placing them on top of other slabs of wood, and then starting the whole process over again. Once dinnertime had rolled around, Anna's arms were sore and she swore to herself that she wasn't going to be carrying anything over ten pounds for the next few weeks.

Sitting down at the table, Anna noticed the alarming absence of Newt. He was supposed to have come back with the rest of the Runners, but the last one had just come through the Doors and he was still nowhere to be found. Anna got up from the table, her mind consumed with worry all of a sudden. She looked down at her watch. They had seven minutes till the Doors closed. She ran over to Minho, who seemed to have noticed the same thing that she had.

"Newt," he said when he saw her. She nodded, and he stood up.

"We need to go get him," she said. Minho nodded.

"Yeah," he agreed. "But you'll be breaking your own rule." Anna glared at him.

"You think that shucking rule matters right now?" she said angrily. "We've got to go." Minho gave a nod, and together they ran off into the Maze.

Anna knew that she had made a reckless decision. She knew that she probably wasn't going to make it out of the Maze in time. But something kept her going, some invisible force that was pushing her along, telling her that she had to find Newt or die trying.

Suddenly, Minho screeched to a stop in front of her, making a small retching sound.

"What?" Anna asked, pressing through. She stopped dead when she saw what Minho was seeing. Anna cursed, fighting the urge to vomit. Lying motionless on the ground before them was Newt, his body surrounded with a dark pool of liquid that was growing larger by the second, seeping into the cracks in the stone. His face was badly cut up, with scrapes up and down the left side. Anna barely registered this, however, because what caught her attention was far worse. Newt's left ankle was sticking out at a funny angle, and his toes were practically facing backwards. His bone had come through and was poking out near the joint between his foot and his leg. His shoe had come off, too, which provided an even more graphic display. Anna gagged again.

"We've got to move him," Minho whispered hoarsely. Anna nodded, kneeling down beside Newt. She gingerly picked him up, propping his head against her shoulder so she could get a better grip. Minho hung one of Newt's arms around his neck and Anna took the other, so the pair of them made makeshift crutches. Newt's head flopped onto Anna's shoulder as she began to walk briskly in the direction that they'd come. A small moan escaped his lips and reached Anna's ear, causing her to glance at him in surprise.

"Minho," she said. "He's alive." Minho looked at her, hope etched in his features.

"Newt?" Anna murmured, some of his blood-crusted hair getting into her mouth as she spoke.

"Anna," he whispered back, his brow creasing. His body began to tremble violently as he seemed to come fully back to consciousness. Anna, still walking quickly, tried to soothe him as well as she could.

"Two minutes," Minho warned her. Anna swore under her breath and picked up the pace. The three of them had about a five minutes' walk back to the Glade, and Anna knew they couldn't make it on time. She and Minho glanced at each other and broke into a run, Newt's head falling limp against his chest once more, his long blond hair spilling down over his shirt. Anna, who had been unconsciously counting seconds in her head, realized they had a minute left. She ran at full sprint for the Doors, which were coming into view. Newt bounced up and down, his feet dragging on the floor. Anna glanced at him and saw that his eyes were tightly closed, his teeth were gritted and his face shone with sweat. She turned her head away from him, not wanting to watch her best friend in pain like that. The Doors were getting closer and closer as Anna and Minho raced across the floor of the Maze. Then, with fifteen seconds to spare, they tumbled through the opening and into the Glade, where a crowd of people swarmed them, peppering them with questions. Anna, completely overwhelmed by the teeming mass of Gladers, shooed them vaguely away with one hand, the other one still clutching Newt's left arm. She scanned the crowd for Clint and Jeff, her eyes finally landing upon them about ten feet away, fighting through the crowd.

"Clint!" she screamed over the roar of speech that was ringing in her ears. "Jeff!" The crowd parted and Clint and Jeff rushed over.

"What happened?" Clint asked, his expression filled with utmost shock.

"I don't know," Anna snapped. "Just get to shucking work!"

Clint nodded, and he and Jeff gingerly took Newt from Anna and Minho. Jeff was about a foot taller than Clint, and they held Newt at a slightly awkward angle as they carried him off to the Homestead. Anna glanced at Minho. He wasn't very out of breath, but his face was pale and he looked completely dumbstruck. Anna gestured in the direction that Clint and Jeff had just gone, and Minho nodded, the two of them walking off towards the Homestead.

The next few hours were a blur. Anna and Minho hovered around Clint and Jeff as they attempted to put Newt back together. He'd passed out after about ten minutes, so this made it much easier for them to patch him up, as he'd stopped screaming and twisting around. Anna didn't want to look at what they were doing, but a morbid sense of interest took over her, and she stayed in the Homestead until Clint had announced that they'd done all they could and time would tell whether he'd recover. They did, however, confirm to Anna that Newt hadn't been Stung, so this put Anna's mind at ease for the time being. It also made her wonder, though. If a Griever hadn't gotten him, what had?

Anna refused to move from the small chair beside Newt's bed until he woke up. She sat there twenty four hours, moving only when Minho came in to insist that she sleep and to bring her food. Anna didn't speak to anyone; she simply sat by Newt's bed, unfeeling.

At about eight o'clock the night after she and Minho had rescued Newt from the Maze, Newt finally stirred. Anna sat forward in her seat, her eyes widening.

"Newt," she whispered, her voice croaky from lack of use. _"Newt."_ He moaned and squeezed his eyes shut, his brow creasing.

"Anna," he mumbled, opening his bright blue eyes. Anna could have laughed out loud with relief at seeing them again.

"Newt, you're okay!" she cried happily. He squinted blearily at her, pushing himself into a sitting position with one arm, wincing as he shifted his injured leg.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, brushing his long hair out of his face shakily. Anna smiled. Then, suddenly, a thought occurred to her which had been gnawing at the edge of her mind for a while.

"Newt, can you tell me what happened last night?" She didn't want to hear the answer, but she had a hunch, and she wanted it proved wrong. Newt looked up, making eye contact with Anna. The trapped look in his eyes confirmed Anna's suspicions, and her joy at Newt's recovery was quickly replaced by an all-consuming rage that made Anna want to lash out at him. Restraining herself, she glared at him coldly.

"You know what?" she snapped. "You don't have to tell me. Spare yourself the shame of admitting that you've let me down. Not only me, but the rest of the Glade, too." Newt looked hurt.

"Anna," he began, but Anna cut him off.

"Shut it," she growled. "I want to say my piece and then you can protest." Newt didn't say anything, so she went on. "You jumped, didn't you? Rather than telling me or Minho or anyone else who was, by the way, perfectly shucking willing to risk our own lives for yours, you decided to jump off the wall."

"I'm sorry," Newt pleaded, the look in his eyes so remorseful that it almost melted Anna's anger. Almost. She glared at him.

"You shucking coward," she muttered angrily. "You took the easy way out. Any one of the Gladers would've helped you, you know." He nodded.

"I know," he said. "I was scared of what you'd think, because…" He trailed off.

"What?" Anna asked, calming down some.

"I…" he mumbled.

Anna didn't know how close she'd leaned towards him until she realized that she could see his long blond eyelashes with clarity in the dim light of the room. Suddenly a strange, almost foreign feeling came over her, and before she knew what she was doing she had lunged forward and pressed her lips against Newt's. He made a small noise of surprise, but after a second he was kissing her, too, and Anna was filled with a warm bliss that was a vast improvement over the stone-cold resentment of a few moments earlier. Anna tangled her fingers through Newt's silky hair, relishing how it slipped through her fingers like molten gold.

Suddenly, there was a loud crashing noise from behind them.

" _What the shuck?!"_

Anna pulled herself away from Newt, whirling around to see Minho standing there, his hands frozen in the action of carrying a tray. Said tray was sitting on the ground, its contents spilled all over the floor.

"Hey, Minho," she said casually. "Newt woke up."

"I see that," he replied, still wide-eyed at the scene he'd just walked in on. Newt fiddled with the sheet awkwardly.

"Well, I'll just be going, then," Minho said, backing out of the room. Anna glanced at Newt, and when she made eye contact with him and they both laughed slightly, she knew that her anger at what he'd done was completely overshadowed by the wonderful, completely incomprehensible feeling flowing through her at that moment.

Once Minho had gotten over the shock of what he'd seen, and had gone into the bathroom to wash his eyeballs multiple times, he seemed to find this new installment in the epic saga that was the Glade very amusing. He kept referring to Newt as Anna's "boyfriend", to which she responded that they were just friends who happened to have been kissing each other when Minho walked in. By the next day, the entire Glade knew, and Anna had to endure the Gladers glancing and smirking at her every time they saw her. She constantly moaned about this to Newt, who was the only one who would listen, but that was really all he _could_ do, as Clint had commanded him to stay in the little room until he could stand up without hurting himself. Trying to console her, Newt told her about how boring and uneventful it was sitting in bed all day. This, however, didn't help anything, as Newt had brought it upon himself.

For the next day or so, Anna thought a lot about what Newt should do once Clint relinquished him. She brainstormed for a while, and eventually came up with a plan, which she told Newt. Though he was glad not to have been given the task of being a Slopper (which Anna had considered), he seemed less than satisfied.

"Explain to me exactly what I'm going to be doing?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know!" Anna said exasperatedly. "You're just gonna be… helping me out with these shuckfaces that I'm in charge of!" Newt frowned.

"So… I'm like your _sidekick._ "

"Yes! You're my shucking sidekick!"

"Okay…" He still looked confused.

"Look, if you were happy with your old job, you shouldn't have gone throwing yourself fifty feet off of a wall!" Anna knew she had gone too far, knew that she shouldn't talk about Newt's suicide attempt, but she was, quite frankly, ticked off at him. A brief look of hurt flashed across his features but was quickly replaced with a mask of nonchalance as he nodded.

"Alright," he said softly. "That's fine with me."

Anna felt a pang of guilt at the pain in his eyes. Her features softening, she reached forwards and brushed a stray lock of blond hair from Newt's forehead.

"Hey," she said. Newt didn't respond. She placed two fingers under his chin and tilted his face upward so his eyes locked with hers. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "I shouldn't have said that. I know how hard this is for you."

Newt swallowed hard but didn't say anything. Struck with a sudden impulse, Anna leaned towards him and kissed the tip of his nose. Newt blinked in surprise, and Anna stood up and walked out.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Anna stepped into the Glade, her vision limited in the dim light of the sun, which had mostly set. Minho was waiting for her outside, smirking.

"How was your chat with Cutie Newty?" he asked. Anna swung at him playfully.

"Shut up," she laughed, falling into step beside him. Minho snickered.

"But really," Minho said after a moment. "How is he?"

"He seems fine," said Anna. "He's shaken up, but who wouldn't be, really?" Minho nodded, falling quiet again. They had joined the rest of the Gladers by then, and Anna realized that she hadn't eaten anything all day.

"I'm gonna go get dinner," she said. "Want to come?" Minho shook his head.

"I've already eaten," he said. "But you can go, I'm gonna go hang out with Rob." Anna nodded, walking off towards Frypan.

After a couple days, the general murmur of interest following Newt's incident began to wear off. The Gladers resumed their usual activities without bothering to talk to Clint or anyone else about whether they would ever release the former Keeper of the Runners from the Homestead. Anna wasn't sure whether she was relieved or annoyed about this, as she had hoped that the Gladers would care more about their Runners. On the other hand, though, she was happy to be free of people pestering her about it, and she was sure Clint and Jeff were, too.

About a day and a half later, Clint called her over during lunch.

"Hey, Anna," he said. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Sure," she replied, wary. She got up from her table, giving an apologetic glance to the people sitting there with her. She and Clint walked a couple steps over so they wouldn't be stepped on by anyone.

"Look," Clint said. "I need your opinion on something."

"What is it?" she asked.

"You're the… um… _closest_ to Newt out of all of us, right?" Anna, to her disgust, blushed. She gave a small nod. "Well," Clint continued. "I think that he's pretty much ready to get up and start walking around, but I just wanted to make sure you feel comfortable with me letting him. I know you're good… friends with the shank, and I figured I should get the okay from you first."

"Oh!" Anna said, exhaling in relief. "That's all. I was worried." Clint smiled.

"Sorry," he apologized. "So you're good?"

"Yeah," she agreed. "As long as you think it's fine. I trust your opinion."

Clint nodded and told Anna that she could go back to lunch, as that was all he needed to ask.

A couple hours later, just after the Runners came back, Anna was fidgeting nervously, standing in Newt's room of the Homestead. Newt looked happier than he had for the past couple days, alight with the concept of being able to leave his prison.

"Can I get up, now, Clint?" he asked impatiently. "I've been stuck here for a whole bloody week."

"If you shut up, I'll let you out quicker," said Clint, who was bustling around the room checking things. Anna almost snickered at the pout on Newt's face.

After about ten minutes, Clint finally let Newt stand up, teetering uncertainly on his feet.

"Whoa," Newt muttered, flailing his arms to stay upright. "This is bloody weird."

"You okay?" Anna laughed.

"Yeah," Newt said. "I'm good at th—" He interrupted himself by stumbling and almost falling over. Anna rushed forward and wrapped an arm around his waist without thinking. She froze.

"Sorry," she said awkwardly, removing her arm. Newt shook his head.

"No," he said. "You can keep doing that." Anna grinned. She resumed the position she'd been in before, and the pair of them stumbled around the room for about five minutes. Clint stood to the side, stifling his laughter. Anna awkwardly steered Newt towards the door, and the two of them tottered out into the Glade.

"Hey, Minho!" Newt yelled. "Check it out!" Minho jogged over, grinning, still slightly breathless from his trip to the Maze.

"Hey, man!" Minho said. "Haven't seen you in a while. How's it going?"

"I'm good," Newt answered, though he winced slightly as he shifted his weight from one foot to another. Minho didn't seem to notice this, however, and continued to make small talk with Newt as Anna stood by awkwardly.

"So," Anna broke in. "Newt and I are gonna go for a walk around the Glade before it gets too dark, if you want to join us."

Minho shook his head.

"I would, Anna, but I'm all worn out from running," he sighed dramatically. "Guess you'll have to go without me. All alone." Anna squinted at him. Was he playing matchmaker? She hid her suspicions, however, and nodded slowly.

"Okay," she said casually. "See you tomorrow, then."

Minho walked off, leaving Anna and Newt to wander the Glade. She glanced at Newt.

"You ready?" she asked.

"Yeah," Newt replied, smiling. "I've gotten better at it." Anna noticed (with a shameful feeling of satisfaction) that he didn't ask her to let go of him.

The two awkwardly intertwined teenagers meandered slowly around the Glade, stopping eventually when Newt began to trip over his own feet. They sat together on a fallen log in the Deadheads, listening to the noises of the wind whistling through the trees. Anna realized that she was still entwined with Newt, and rather than letting go, she leaned towards him and rested her head against his shoulder. Newt looked down and smiled, placing an arm around her shoulders. As Anna sat with him, awash with happiness, she realized that Minho's intentions had been good. He knew how much Anna subconsciously wanted Newt, and he had helped it happen. Anna made a mental note to thank him later. For now, though, she was happy to sit with Newt and forget about her problems.

Newt and Anna walked back to the Homestead after about an hour. Newt, who had lost his newfound skill at walking while they were sitting together, had to be propped up by Anna on the way back, both of them laughing as they stumbled over things in the dim light. Newt's bright white bandaged foot was pretty much the only thing that Anna could see clearly as they crashed through the underbrush and into the Glade. After a long while, they made it back to the Homestead and stood for a moment outside the door, catching their breath and laughing uncontrollably.

"Okay," Anna gasped. "I'm gonna let go of you now."

"Alright," Newt said. She slipped her arm from around him and let it fall to her side. Newt swayed but didn't fall, using the wall as a support. Anna smiled to herself. Then the two of them walked hand in hand into the Homestead, stopping once they reached Anna's room.

"Can you get back on your own?" she asked. Newt nodded.

"Yeah," he said. "Night, love." Anna felt color rise in her cheeks as he reached up and brushed her face with his thumb. She pulled his face close to hers and kissed him, closing her eyes despite the fact that she couldn't see much anyway. They broke apart after a few seconds, and Anna practically floated to her room, levitating on a cloud of bliss that propelled her along the floor. She pulled back the sheets of her bed and climbed in. She closed her eyes and lay back onto the pillow, but had trouble falling asleep for all the warm, happy fantasies buzzing around her head.

The next morning, Anna found it a little hard to settle back into her routine when Newt was always right around the corner. She worked hard to help supervise the Gladers, but soon realized that having a second-in-command meant that she had a lot less work to do than she previously had, and she couldn't tell if she liked it or not. While she was glad not to be stressed out all the time, she also wasn't sure if she wanted so much free time to think about their hopeless situation.

Anna was being selfish, though, because the only thing she should have been feeling then was gratitude that Newt was recovering so quickly. He had figured out how to walk around on his own, but he still had a heavy limp that Anna wasn't sure would ever go away completely. He didn't let this bother him, though, as he had adopted an overly positive attitude over the past couple days, and Anna was glad that he had. Better optimistic than moping around all day. For some reason, moping had become _her_ job, as she had woken up irritable that morning, and had avoided talking to people.

Anna's gloomy attitude remained throughout the day, and she wasn't even sure what was bothering her. She sat alone at the lunch table that afternoon, picking at her sandwich and wondering what it was that was upsetting her. Anna was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't even notice Newt place his tray down beside her and plunk awkwardly onto the bench until he snapped his fingers in front of her face. Anna blinked, startled. She spun around, laid eyes on Newt, and relaxed.

"Hey," she said casually.

"Sorry," he replied. "I didn't mean to freak you out."

"That's okay," she said, turning back to look at her uneaten lunch.

Newt flicked her.

"What's up?" he asked. Anna rubbed her shoulder indignantly, glaring. Then she sighed apologetically.

"Sorry," she said. "I've just been in a bad mood all day and I can't figure out why." Newt frowned thoughtfully.

"Maybe you're upset because you feel like I'm stealing your thunder." Anna blinked.

"No," she said hurriedly. "No, I'm sure that's—" Newt placed a finger on her lips, shushing her.

"Yeah, you are," he said. "And I don't blame you. You're mad that I went and flung myself off of a bloody wall and took your job. You don't want to say it, but I can tell."

As he said it, Anna felt a dam inside of her break, and the feelings of resentment she'd had previously gave way to remorse and fondness for Newt and how well he knew her. Without thinking, she flung her arms around him and buried her head against his chest. Realizing what she was doing, Anna cleared her throat loudly and let go, smoothing her hair back with one hand.

"Sorry," she muttered. Newt laughed.

"Better now?" he asked. Anna smiled.

"I guess," she admitted.

The rest of the day went much more smoothly. Anna went back to work after lunch, and the next couple hours flew by. The Runners came back at the usual time, and Newt told Anna that he would take charge of the Glade for a while and she could go to bed early. Anna obliged willingly, and her mood had improved so drastically since that afternoon that she found herself smiling to herself as she walked to the Homestead.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello again!**

 **I know that this is sort of soon for an update, but I had some free time today and I wrote another chapter. I hope you like it!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Maze Runner Trilogy.**

 **I also wanted to thank HappinessMoreOrLess and SkyFire617 for their reviews. You don't know how much it means to me to see people reading my story!**

 **P.S. The website is being sort of slow lately, so if you reviewed and I didn't mention you, I'm sorry and I'd like to thank you too!**

 **\- Plerfstacks :)**

Chapter 8

After a couple days passed, Anna grew used to having a second-in-command. She decided not to let it bother her that she had a lot less work to distract herself with, and instead focused on making the most of the work she _was_ doing. Anna worked hard all day building, planting, cleaning, and generally trying to improve life for the other Gladers. Newt toiled right along with her, and she was impressed at his ability to complete the harder tasks without complaint.

The days flew by with Newt's help, and Anna found herself spending more and more time with him—really anywhere that they could find a moment of privacy. The help that she was most thankful for, however, was discovered the day when they got a new Greenie—a particularly whiny kid called Mark. The second Anna pulled him out of the Box, she knew that she wanted nothing to do with the kid. He spent the first few minutes moaning about the fact that he couldn't remember anything, and while Anna was sympathetic, she couldn't help but remember all of the Greenies who hadn't complained. She was dreading giving him the Tour, but right then Newt stepped up and told the kid that he was going to show him around.

"But I thought _she_ was in charge," Mark whined.

"Look here," Anna snapped. "He's in charge, too, and you better treat him like it." Newt glanced at her, mouthing, _Thanks._ He then practically dragged the protesting Greenie off to the Homestead. Anna wasn't sure whether to laugh or scowl at the sight of the kid griping at Newt as he shepherded him along, and Newt's harassed expression.

That night, Anna sat with Newt and Minho at dinner. Newt spoke in hushed tones about his torturous afternoon showing Mark the Glade, and Minho and Anna stifled their laughter.

"And ya know what," Newt went on, a small smirk on his face. "I think he might have a crush on you, Anna." Anna choked on her salad, coughing until Minho thumped her on the back. Gasping for air, she looked disbelievingly at Newt across the table.

"He _what?"_ she cried. Newt had dissolved into spasms of laughter and didn't respond for a couple seconds. Anna drummed her fingers on the table.

"He spent the whole bloody time talking about how _you_ should have been the one showing him around, and that I wasn't doing it well enough," Newt said finally. Anna exhaled loudly.

"He had better not try and pull anything," Anna muttered. Minho cleared his throat loudly.

"So…" he said, trailing off when he apparently couldn't think of anything to say. Anna recognized this as an attempt to change the subject, so she complied.

"How was running, Minho?" she asked.

"Fine, I guess," he said. "Didn't find anything. I made a trip to the Cliff, threw some stuff over the edge. Wasn't very exciting." Anna nodded.

"Okay," she replied. "Well, I'm off to bed. See you guys later." She stood up and walked off to the Homestead, where she picked her hair out of its braid, took her shoes off, and climbed into bed.

The next day, Anna helped Zart with harvesting the many crops that had been planted a few weeks ago. Newt worked with them, too, because they really did need all hands on deck. It was a big project. The Track-Hoes, Anna, and Newt worked for two and a half hours, and they had only gotten up about a third of the vegetables. Anna sat up, wiping the sweat off of her forehead. She looked around the Glade, really just as an excuse to be taking a break. Suddenly, she heard a very faint voice calling her name from a long distance away. She stood up, taking a step forward. Wondering if it was just her mind playing tricks on her due to all the heat beating down, she glanced around, trying to find who it was yelling for her. When she heard the voice again, she realized that it must really be somebody. Anna couldn't see anybody, however, and she was about to call back when she was struck with a horrible possibility. She set down her shovel and set off at a full sprint towards the Maze. As she got closer, it became obvious that the voice was coming from the West Doors, so Anna headed that way. When she arrived in front of the Doors, breathing hard, she glanced inside and was completely shocked to see Gally running towards her, pursued by a Griever. Anna's jaw dropped slightly as she froze.

"Anna!" Gally screamed, his voice hoarse. "Help me!" Anna realized with a jolt the situation that they were in, and she immediately ran into the Maze. She had no idea what she was doing. Who in their right mind runs full speed after a Griever? Anna put these thoughts aside as she reached Gally, spinning around and running beside him. She glanced backwards to see the Griever rear back with one of its blades, and she knew she only had a moment to act. Subconsciously letting out a yell, she shoved Gally aside and took the brunt of its blow, squeezing her eyes shut.

Anna didn't remember much of those few seconds. It had all happened so quickly, and she had acted purely on impulse, but the next thing Anna knew, she was curled on the ground in the fetal position, one hand clasped over the left side of her face. Somehow, she had rolled herself into the Glade, and a small crowd had already gathered around her and Gally. _Wait,_ Anna thought suddenly. _Where's Gally?_ She opened her right eye, the one that wasn't obscured by her hand or whatever that warm, sticky stuff was flowing down her face. She caught a glimpse of Gally's limp figure on the ground before her vision was blocked by a pair of feet stopping in front of her. It was a moment before Anna realized that she recognized those sneakers.

"Newt," she murmured thickly. He leaned down and brushed her matted hair out of her face.

"Shh," he whispered. "It'll be alright, love." Anna tried to reach up and take his hand, but her arms felt like they were made of lead. She turned her head slightly, and the painful throb that had been pulsing in her face for the past few moments doubled. She let out a soft whimper, letting her head roll back into its original position. Voices echoed around her, making Anna feel dizzy and disoriented. Suddenly, a pair of strong arms gently lifted her up bridal style and she looked up one-eyed at her rescuer. He glanced down at her, his blue eyes filled with concern.

"Newt, what's going—" she began, but he shook his head.

"Don't talk," he said. Anna obeyed him, as just those three words had drained her of energy and she felt dizzier than she had before. Instead, she leaned her head into Newt's shirt and allowed the gentle, uneven rocking of his steps to lull her into unconsciousness.

Anna opened her eyes, her head throbbing. She looked around, momentarily confused as to why she could only see out of one eye. Anna raised a hand to her face and realized that her left eye, along with the entire left side of her face, was completely bandaged. She sat up, swaying back and forth as she became lightheaded and sank back onto her pillow. Blinking away the stars swimming in front of her vision, she tried to comprehend the situation. Clint and Jeff must have put the bandage on her; there weren't any other Gladers who knew about this sort of thing. Anna abruptly remembered Gally. She wondered vaguely whether she had saved him, or if he had been killed and her attempt was all in vain.

The door opened, jolting her out of her thoughts. Clint walked in, shutting the door behind him. His eyes widened slightly when he saw that she was awake.

"Hey," he said. "Good to see you again." Anna smiled.

"What happened, Clint?" she asked croakily.

"You saved Gally's butt," he told her. "He ran into the shuck Maze for no reason and almost got killed by a Griever. You jumped in front of it, and the Griever cut you across the face with its knife. You were lying on the ground just outside the West Door; everyone thought you were dead. Newt was in a complete panic, shoving everyone away and running over to you, and when he realized that you _weren't_ dead, he picked you up and brought you here. Jeff and I fixed you up as well as we could, and you were unconscious for three days."

Anna was silent for a moment.

"Whoa," she said finally. "I can't decide whether this is cool or the second-worst thing that ever happened to me."

Clint smiled knowingly, and Anna could tell from his expression that he knew exactly what the worst thing that ever happened to her was.

"I think it's both," he said. Anna nodded. Then she remembered the reason that this problem had started in the first place.

"Gally," she said. "What happened to him?" Clint frowned, like this was a touchy subject.

"Stung," Clint muttered. "The stupid slinthead ran right into the Maze. He's just lucky you showed up and saved his skin."

"He went through the Changing?" Anna asked. "While I was out?" Clint nodded.

"Yeah," he replied. "He was screaming something awful till this morning. He'll be fine in a couple days, but you know, it's not called the Changing for nothing." Anna shuddered.

"Oh!" she realized suddenly. "Can I see Newt?"

"Yeah," Clint responded, standing up. "I'll go get him."

Anna waited in her room for Clint to return with Newt, and she didn't have long to wait. Newt's familiar lilting footsteps mixed with Clint's even ones filled the hallway outside the room, and the door was flung open to reveal Newt standing there with a wide grin on his face.

"Anna!" he cried jovially. "You're okay!" Anna simultaneously laughed and winced.

"Yeah," she agreed. "I'm fine. I don't feel great, but I'm fine." Newt limped over to her bed and sat on the edge of the mattress. Anna reached over and grasped his hand, tracing her thumb over his knuckles.

"I'll just leave you two… um… alone," said Clint awkwardly, grabbing the doorknob and walking out. Anna and Newt sat in silence for a while, Anna relishing Newt's presence beside her.

"My God, Anna," Newt finally murmured. "You scared me half to death with that stunt you pulled." Anna frowned.

"I saved Gally's life," she reminded him.

"Oh," he said quickly. "I didn't mean it like that. I just… You were… Everyone thought you were _dead._ And I was so bloody scared."

Anna's frown turned immediately into a fond smile at Newt's confession.

"Newt," she said, feeling the need for apology. "I… I'm sorry for being so crazy—" Newt shook his head.

"No," he shushed her. "You did the right thing. I know I could never do what you did." Then a small smile appeared on his lips. "Actually, come to think about it, I probably _physically_ couldn't. I'd trip." Anna gave a small laugh.

"You're right," she agreed, smirking. The two Gladers lapsed once more into silence, which hung for a few seconds before the door burst open.

"Minho!" Newt cried in surprise.

"Hey, peeps!" Minho said loudly. "Good to see you again, Anna." Anna grinned and waved.

"You're already back from running?" she asked. "Wait… What time is it?"

"About two hours after dinner," Newt supplied.

"You've been out forever," Minho told her. "It's been like three days."

"Last I checked, three days was not forever," Anna teased. "And I already knew that. Clint told me."

"Alright, then," Minho said.

"What other news do we have?" Anna asked. Newt and Minho looked at each other, apparently trying to think of some news.

"Well," Newt said. "I've been running the place for the past three days. The job is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I don't know how you did it for so many bloody months."

Anna laughed, realizing that this was truly the first time that Newt was experiencing single-handedly monitoring the Gladers for more than a couple hours.

"Maybe I'm just naturally talented," she suggested. Newt poked her in the ribs playfully and she laughed.

"Alright," Minho said, standing up. "I should get to bed soon. I, unlike some people, have to get up and work in the morning."

"Shut your hole, Minho," Newt said. Minho just snickered and left the room. Newt turned to her. "I really am doing work," he said defensively. Anna smiled consolingly.

"I know you are, love," she murmured fondly.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Anna couldn't help but feel extremely grateful that Newt had become her second-in-command. It had dawned on her what a horrible situation she'd be in right about then if she didn't have anyone to take over. Newt, on the other hand, seemed less than happy about the new arrangement, and he came to visit her every night with news of the Glade and what an exhausting job it was to be in charge of the Gladers. Anna, though sympathetic, found this quite entertaining, and she humored him every time he complained.

"I can't take much more of this," a very frazzled Newt moaned about three days after she'd saved Gally. "They all want to know what's going on with you, and what they should be doing, and the shuck Greenbean won't leave me _alone!_ "

Composing herself so she looked reasonable and consoling, Anna tried to soothe him.

"Newt," she began, but dissolved into hastily silenced laughter. Newt frowned. Then his features relaxed as he seemed to see it from Anna's point of view.

"I guess it _is_ stupid of me to be complaining, though," he admitted. "You did that shuck job all by yourself for more than a year."

"You're just not used to it," she told him, taking his hand and smiling. "You'll get better at it soon. It was like that for me at first, too." She didn't add that she hadn't had anyone to vent to about her stress when she had done it.

"Alright, then," Newt said, placated.

"Oh!" Anna said suddenly. "Did you see Clint on the way in?"

"Yeah," Newt answered, his brow knitting. "Why?"

"Did he say anything about letting me out? I'm shucking bored in here when you aren't visiting." Newt smirked.

"Do you pine away, all alone, wishing that I would come back to you, my dear Anna?"

"Yes, Newt," she gushed, playing along. "I miss you ever so much when you leave me, my love." Newt laughed and leaned over, kissing her cheek.

"Listen, Anna, I have to leave soon," he said, dropping his character. She frowned.

"How come?" she asked.

"I can't leave the shuck Greenie alone for three seconds without him coming to bother me. I don't want him coming in here."

"Fair enough," Anna admitted. "Hey, can you go get Clint? I want to know when he'll let me free."

"Alright," Newt replied. He kissed her forehead and stood up, walking out of the room. Anna waited for a few moments, but being the impatient person that she was, she got bored after about a minute. When she was wondering whether Clint was ever going to show up, he finally opened the door.

"Took you long enough," Anna teased. Clint grinned.

"It wasn't my fault. I came over as soon as Newt asked me to. Maybe _he's_ the one who took a long time."

Anna threw a pillow at him. Clint caught it and put it back on the bed. Anna arranged herself so she was in a sitting position, and looked at him expectantly.

"What do you say?" she asked. "Can I leave? Newt's gonna crack if I don't let him take a day off." Clint sighed. He seemed to be weighing the possibilities. After a while, he looked up at her and delivered his verdict.

"You know what, if you think that you can do it, then I probably shouldn't let you." Anna made an indignant noise.

"What do you mean?" she cried.

"I mean that this is an impulse move and when you stand up you're gonna get dizzy and fall over and hit your head on something."

"I'm not impulsive," Anna protested.

"Yeah, you are," Clint said. Anna pouted. "Okay, look," he said, apparently trying to placate her. "You can try tomorrow. I just don't want you creating more problems for yourself."

"Okay," Anna sighed. She sat back against her pillow resignedly and prepared herself for another day of boredom.

"Come on, Anna," Clint said. "Don't look at me like that." Anna, who hadn't realized that she was looking at him in any specific way, blinked bewilderedly.

"I wasn't looking at you," she told him. He shrugged.

"Okay, then," he said, humoring her.

"Alright, get out, Clint," she laughed. He gave her a look of false hurt and walked out of the room.

Anna decided to take a nap. She figured that she had nothing better to do, and should therefore take advantage of the situation by doing the one thing she never got to do. Anna slept for almost six hours, until she was woken up by a knock at the door.

"Come in," she called blearily. The door opened, and standing there was Minho, grinning widely.

"Hey, Anna," he said. "How's life going?"

"I _was_ sleeping, until you showed up," she told him.

"Sorry bout that," Minho apologized, not sounding like he totally meant it. Anna didn't mind, though.

"So, did you guys find anything?" she asked.

"Nope. Nada. We never really do."

"That's not true," she protested. "You found a bunch of stuff."

"Like what?" he asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically.

"Like, um… Well you haven't found anything recently, but that's because you've already found most of it."

"I guess," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "So, how was your day as a prisoner of Clint and Jeff?"

"Boring," she answered honestly. "Clint said he'd let me go tomorrow, though."

"Sweet," Minho said. "Alright, well, I've gotta go. See you tomorrow!"

"Bye," Anna called after him as he got up and walked out. She wasn't really tired by then, so she stayed up most of the night wishing she could fall asleep. When she finally did, it had been more than five hours, though, so she woke up the next morning exhausted. She had rolled over to fall asleep again when the door was thrown open and Clint walked in.

"You slept in," he informed her. "It's like nine. I figured you should get moving sooner than later if we want to preserve Newt's sanity, so I came in as soon as I could." Anna sat up, overwhelmed by the information that had just been thrown at her so quickly.

"Wait," she mumbled groggily. "What?"

"I'm gonna let you stand up now, even though it's early," Clint said more slowly. "I figured Newt needs you." Anna let out a small laugh.

"Okay," she agreed. "Sounds good. Can you get this shuck thing off of my face, please?"

"Yeah, I guess," Clint replied. He walked over and carefully unwound the bandage that had been covering Anna's face for the past four days. When her left eye was revealed, Clint's eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up slightly.

"Is it bad?" she asked, not wanting to know the answer.

"See for yourself," Clint said, handing her the small mirror that they'd received in the Box a few months earlier. She took it and stared at her face.

"Shuck it," she said after a few seconds. Her left eye was all swollen up and there was a partially healed cut from her forehead to her cheekbone. She looked a wreck. "Can you put the bandage back on?" Clint, who Anna could tell felt bad for her, agreed. After this small fiasco, Anna was ready to get up and go.

"Be careful," Clint warned her, his hands held out in front of him like he was prepared to catch her. Anna rolled her eyes and swung her legs over the side of the mattress. As she stood up, she was overcome by a wave of vertigo and she stumbled slightly, but recovered her posture after a few seconds.

"I'm good," she assured a very tensed up Clint. She took a few steps and realized that it was much easier to walk around than it was to stand up. After a minute or so, she was walking around the room like a pro, and felt very proud of herself. Clint deemed her ready to go out into the world, so she walked out the door to reclaim her rightful position as leader of the Glade.

The minute the toe of her boot touched the grass of the Glade, the Greenie was upon her, peppering her with questions.

"Whoa! What's that on your face? What happened? Oh! Is that from the other night? Is that why the other guy has been in charge this whole time?" Anna scowled and held out a hand to indicate her personal space.

"Yes," she said. "It's from the other night. It's why Newt has been in charge. I've got to go join him, so sorry to run off like this, but I have to go."

"Okay," the Greenie said, evidently satisfied. "Bye."

"Bye," Anna said over her shoulder, having already walked away. She turned back towards the rest of the Glade, trying to regain her composure. She didn't know how Newt had survived that kid for so long.

Anna saw Newt standing with the Builders, apparently making up work for Gally. She walked up behind him and grabbed his elbow. He spun around, his expression murderous, but his features relaxed when he saw who it was.

"Oh, Anna, you don't know how relieved I am to see you," he cried, hugging her. She grinned.

"Good to see you, too," she said. "Clint said I could come back and relieve you of your full-time job."

"Oh, man," he said happily. "You're saving my life. These shanks are so bloody hard to take care of."

"Tell me about it," Anna muttered, grinning.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey! Sorry I didn't write anything at the beginning of chapter 9. I missed a step when I was uploading it. I'm back now though. :D**

 **Also, if anyone doesn't understand something in the story, feel free to PM me and I'll get back to you.**

 **Lastly, I'm also considering writing a sequel to this- sort of a Scorch Trials fanfic. Let me know if you think that's a good idea!**

 **\- Plerfstacks :)**

Chapter 10

Anna had to endure being swarmed with questions for the next few hours: _What was it like in the Maze? Is Gally gonna be replaced as Keeper? When are you gonna take the shuck bandage off? Is Newt still your second-in-command, or are you_ his _now? You're not going to_ Banish _Gally, are you?_

She realized that she was going to have to actually _answer_ the questions, or they'd never leave her be. Every time she was asked, Anna gave an honest answer, though she would have rather yelled at them to get back to work. She had gotten used to not having anything to do all day, and while she had previously been under the impression that she'd be happier once she got back to work, she realized after a while that this was not entirely true. She did, however, enjoy the renewed feeling of being in control, which she hadn't possessed for the past week.

Newt was very thankful to her for getting the Greenie to stop pestering him, but it came at a price for Anna. The kid now wouldn't leave _her_ alone, and she wondered whether Newt really _was_ correct in thinking that the Greenie was crushing on her. She tried not to think about this, however, because she felt bad for the kid and didn't want to get into an awkward situation.

The Greenbean had, however, been given a job, which turned out to be Slopper. He didn't seem too happy about this, however, and he asked Anna whether he could switch.

"Sorry, Greenie," she said. "The Council picked the job that they thought you'd be most helpful in."

"How is that job helpful?" he asked.

"Well, you know, if it weren't for the shuck Sloppers, we'd be knee-deep in trash and sticks and leaves." He looked at her, his face showing some amount of interest.

"So they actually help?"

"Yeah," Anna assured him. "It's one of the most helpful jobs."

She was lying through her teeth, and she knew it, but she felt bad for the kid and was trying to sugarcoat the job's duties for his sake. Apparently, Mark was pleased with this, and he began work the next day. After he'd been given work to do, he was a lot less clingy, and Anna began to wonder whether he was really all that bad. Maybe he just wanted to feel useful.

In other news, Gally was out and about again. He had been allowed to leave the Homestead the day after Anna was. He was acting weird, though, wandering moodily around and completing his tasks absently, scowling the whole time. Anna wondered if he'd ever snap out of it. They did call it the Changing, and she was worried that Gally would never be his old self again. After about a week and a half, Anna had lost all hope in Gally ever really changing back. She felt like she'd lost a friend, which she sort of had. Gally's new brooding attitude wasn't at all like he used to be, and Anna could tell that she was going to have a hard time getting to know him again.

The Gladers received a new Greenie about two days later. Anna jumped into the Box to get the kid out, and was immediately astonished at his age. The boy looked to be about twelve, and was easily the youngest Glader there. Seeing the kid cowering in the Box gave Anna a new anger towards the Creators. For all Anna knew, the Glade was a prison, and the Gladers (including her) had all committed felonies, but the kid in the Box couldn't have done anything that deserved imprisonment. Anna felt sure then that the Creators were playing a sick game with them, and she wished she knew who they were so she could destroy their whole demented scheme.

Anna pulled herself back into reality. She offered her hand to the kid, and he used it to tug himself into a standing position.

"Hey, Greenie," she said. Then she turned around and yelled up to the Builders, "Pull us up!"

Anna and the Greenie grabbed the rope and were yanked up onto the grass.

"What's going on?" the kid asked fearfully.

"This is the Glade," Anna answered. "We're all in pretty much the same boat as you are. None of us know how we got here and why we did in the first place, but we've sort of set up a community here as soon as we get out. My name's Anna, by the way."

The kid looked completely bewildered by the information that had been given to him.

"Um," he said. "Okay then…"

Newt walked up to them, half-smiling.

"Don't listen to her," he said, addressing the Greenie. "She'll just confuse you."

"Shut your hole, Newt," Anna muttered. When she said Newt's name, the Greenie had the same reaction that Anna had when she'd first met him. That look of surprise followed by a casual expression. Anna smirked. Newt didn't seem to mind, however, and he glanced at Anna and asked her a silent question. _Do you want to show him around or should I?_ She shrugged. _I don't care._

"Alright, Greenie," Newt said out loud. "Anna'll show you around. Come get me if you need me."

The crowd dispersed, and Anna and the Greenie were left standing by the Box. They stood in awkward silence for a moment before Anna broke it.

"So," she said casually. "I never caught your name."

"Chuck," the Greenie answered. Anna nodded, beginning to walk towards the Homestead. The Greenbean stumbled over his feet slightly and followed her.

"So this is the Glade, like I said before," Anna began. "We live in this area all around here. The kitchen's over there, the place where we sleep at night is over there. We've only got three rules here, so they'll be easy to remember: Don't hurt anyone, don't be lazy at your job, and don't _ever_ go beyond those walls. Oh, and Newt and I are in charge if you need anything. "

Chuck blinked.

"Okay," he said, apparently able to follow the lecture. Anna was impressed at his listening skills.

"That's pretty much all you'll need to know for now. We'll be assigning you a job soon, after you try out all the different positions, but you don't need to worry about that now."

"What are the different positions?" he asked.

"Well, let's see…" Anna tried to think of all of them. "There are the Track-Hoes; they're sort of like farmers, the Builders, the Cooks, the Sloppers, who clean up stuff, the Slicers, the Med-Jacks, and the Runners."

"Alright," he nodded.

"Okay. Now we just need somebody to give you all the details, cause I've got to get back to work." She scanned the Glade for her second-in-command. _"Newt!"_ she yelled. He turned and walked over to them.

"What is it, Anna?" he asked.

"Can you go get Mark for me?" she requested. Newt gave a small frown.

"Why?" he asked.

"Cause he was the old Greenie. I need him to show Chuck here all the ins and outs. I can't, I'm busy and so are you." Newt nodded.

"Alright," he said, turning and walking off. He returned a few moments later with Mark, who looked confused.

"What do you need me for?" he asked, with noticeably less hyper energy than he'd had before.

"I need you to show Chuck around," Anna told him. "I've shown him the basics, but I need to get back to work, so can you give him the full tour?"

"Sure," Mark agreed. "C'mon, Greenie." He had a smug look on his face and Anna could tell that he was pleased to be able to use that term on another person. Mark and Chuck walked off, leaving Anna and Newt standing there.

"Okay, Newt," she told him. "That's all. You can go back to work."

"Sounds good," he replied. "See you later, love." Anna stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek before he left.

"Oh," she said as he began to leave. "Wait, one more thing. Should I wake up early to go show Chuck the Grievers, or do you want to?"

"I don't care. I could if you don't want to."

"Okay, then I'll do it. I wake up early anyway." Newt nodded and walked away.

Anna spent the rest of the day supervising the others, as Clint, Jeff, and Newt had all told her that under no circumstances would she be doing manual labor. She was okay with this, though, because she had no intention of spending another week bedridden in the Homestead.

The first rays of sunlight had not yet begun to pour into her window when Anna woke up the next morning. She was about to go back to sleep when she remembered that she was supposed to show the Greenie the Maze. Rolling out of bed, she changed into her only other outfit and slipped on her boots. Tying her hair up into a ponytail, she walked outside and went to go wake up the Greenie.

Anna pressed her hand over Chuck's mouth so he wouldn't wake anyone else up, and whispered his name. His eyelids snapped open and he blinked rapidly, panic flashing across his face for a split second before he realized who it was. Anna held a finger to her lips and removed her hand from his face. She stood up and motioned for him to follow her. Tiptoeing across the ground, avoiding stepping on people, they reached the East Door. Anna gestured towards a small window in the wall.

"Look," she said softly. Chuck leaned forwards and peered into the Maze.

"I don't see—" he began, and then he jumped slightly. "What is _that_?"

"We call them Grievers," Anna whispered. "They're big blobby slug things that live in the Maze. They mostly come out at night, but they're sometimes around in the daytime. As long as you stay out of the Maze you'll be fine, but it's better to just stay as far away from those shuck things as you can. We've had some… recent incidents." Chuck turned away from the window and stared at Anna's heavily bandaged face. He looked horrorstruck.

"Is that…" he didn't seem to be able to form words. Anna nodded.

"Yeah," she confirmed. "I'm not the first, either. I'm only showing you this, though, because you need to know. You can't go in the Maze."

Chuck nodded. He seemed scared out of his wits.

"Okay," he finally said. "I won't."

They were silent for a moment. Then Chuck slowly turned to look at her again.

"Can I— Can I ask you what happened to your face?" Anna gave a small laugh.

"Yeah. It's okay. Basically Gally decided to be an idiot and run into the Maze, and he started yelling for me. I ran over and saw that he was being chased by a shuck Griever, and so I went in and tried to get it off of his trail or something. I don't really know what I was thinking. Then I turned around and it was getting ready to stab him, so I shoved him out of the way and it got me instead. Don't remember much after that, but Gally got stung, so it was all kinda for nothing."

"Stung?" Chuck asked.

"Oh, yeah," Anna responded. "Forgot to mention that. If they sting you with their needles, you have to have this stuff called the Grief Serum or you'll die. If you get the Serum, you'll go through the Changing, and you'll never really be the same."

Chuck had gone pale.

"Okay," he squeaked.

"Maybe this is too much for one day," Anna muttered. "Alright, Greenie. You can try working with the Slicers today. Have fun." She turned and walked off.

"What do I do?" he yelled after her.

"Find Mark," she called back. "He'll tell you what to do."

The Greenie didn't like working with the Slicers. Nobody did. (Except for the Slicers.) Anna was thankful that she'd been one of the first to get to the Glade, if only so she didn't have to try all the different jobs, one each day.

"Hey, Anna."

She turned.

"Oh, hey, Newt. How's it going?"

"I got no bloody sleep last night," he yawned.

"How come?"

"The shuck Greenie was tramping about outside with Mark for almost three hours. Apparently they were having trouble navigating."

Anna laughed. She wondered how she'd missed that.

"Sounds like fun," she said sarcastically. "I'm glad I slept through it."

"I wish I had. How does one manage to trip over every bloody person in the bloody Glade, huh?"

Anna noticed absently that Newt used a lot more of his slang when he was feeling irritable. She tried to put on a sympathetic expression, but it backfired when she began laughing at the infuriated look on Newt's face.

"What are you laughing about?" he asked, scowling.

"Nothing," she said, stifling her laughter. "Look, love, why don't you go back to bed for a few hours? I can run the place."

"No, it's alright. I just needed to vent," he admitted. "I'm good now."

"Alright, then," Anna said. "Have it your way. But when you fall asleep in your shuck sandwich later, I'll tell you that I told you so." Newt grinned.

"Alright then."

Anna decided later that day that it was time for her to get rid of the shuck bandage that had been bothering her for what seemed like forever. She borrowed Clint's mirror, walked into her room, and began to assess her face. She tried to figure out if she looked normal enough to go out in public. Eventually she decided that she didn't care, and sauntered right out. She was met with some amount of staring, but she didn't really care.

Newt caught up to her.

"Lemme see," he said. She turned around and Newt whistled appreciatively. "I like it," he told her, grinning. "It makes you look tough." Anna laughed.

"It's not too bad, is it?" she said.

"I definitely like it," Newt decided. "You look good. I mean, you always look good, I think you're really pretty, and… I'll stop now."

"Good idea," Anna replied, smiling.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey everybody! I'm finally back! Sorry for the super late update, but I was having some amount of writer's block. :(. But I'm back now with another chapter! (It's 2016, I last updated last year. _Gasp._ ) Sorry that the chapter's kinda short, but I got to a good stopping point and I decided to just quit there. **

**In this chapter, I've transitioned from the world of my prequel to the world of the actual book, and I've changed up the story a little bit, but I'm keeping all the major events, don't worry. I'm kind of experimenting with what might have happened if the characters had the personalities that I've built in this fanfic, and since I've cut out one of the major characters, I'm gonna have to change the plot line a little.**

 **I'd like to thank again everyone who reviewed my fanfic. It means a lot to me to read your reviews.**

 **Sorry for the long author's note :)**

 **-Plerfstacks :)**

Chapter 11

Anna tried her best to get the Greenie assigned to a job, but the kid was sort of incompetent in most of the skills required for many of the available jobs. When the Council met about a week or so after he'd arrived, they had to make him a Slopper, because they knew that he wasn't going to be able to do anything else. Anna felt bad about it, but she ended up voting for that option as well, simply because she wanted what was best for the Glade. Chuck seemed okay with his assignment, but Anna could tell that he was a little disappointed.

The good news, however, was that Chuck and Mark seemed to have become good friends, and since they had the same job, they got to hang out a lot. While Newt still wasn't the biggest fan of Mark, Anna had decided that he wasn't a bad kid. He just needed to have something to do.

Minho had been getting discouraged lately about how little they were accomplishing out in the Maze. Every night he would vent about it to Anna, and she would try her best to convince him that the Runners really _were_ doing something, and that they just needed to have a positive attitude. Anna didn't know where all this optimism came from, though, because she wasn't an optimistic person in general. Her pep talks seemed to be helping at least a little, however, because Minho had somewhat cheered up and resumed providing his snark to anyone present.

"We really do need a new Runner, Anna," he was saying to her one night. "We're one short, because…" His eyes flickered over to Newt, who was pointedly looking in the other direction.

"Yeah," she said, cutting him off. "I'll find someone. Don't worry."

"Cool," he replied, nodding. "Sounds good."

Anna looked far and wide for a new Runner, but everyone she asked refused bluntly. They all seemed to have an excuse, like, _Oh, Anna, I would absolutely love to go risk my life every day out in the Maze, but I can't. I'm busy lifting this heavy log, see?_

She eventually decided just to tell Minho to suck it up. Nobody wanted to be a Runner, and she couldn't make them. Minho wasn't happy about this, but he kept his trap shut about it, despite the fact that he obviously wanted to complain.

The month almost flew by with no tragic deaths, no Griever accidents, no Slicers cutting each other up by mistake, no kitchen fires, and no work for Clint and Jeff. However, about two days before the next Greenie would arrive, a Builder named Ben wandered a little too close to the Maze. Anna didn't see it, but all she could figure was that he'd done pretty much what Gally had done earlier. Gotten up close and personal with a shuck Griever and gotten himself Stung. He was given the Grief Serum, and he was still in the process of the Changing a few days later when the deafening siren that signaled a new Greenie began to ring throughout the Glade.

Anna took her position beside the Box and waited for it to open. When it had, she jumped inside and faced the kid sitting inside, who was staring at her wide-eyed, his body pressed up against the wall.

"Hey, Greenie," she said. "Welcome to the Glade."

The kid stood up shakily and allowed the Builders to yank him and Anna up onto the grass.

"What's going on?" he asked, glancing around like a cornered animal. "Why don't I remember anything?"

"Don't ask questions, Greenie," Anna told him. "Just listen."

He stared at her; the expression on his face making it clear that he was annoyed with her but still wanted information.

"Okay," he muttered.

"None of us remember a shuck thing, Greenie. We all get what you're feeling. You'll find out everything you need to know soon, so I'm not gonna tell you all of it now. It's too much to take in." The kid nodded. Anna turned, addressing the crowd. "Everyone get back to work!" she yelled. The mass of Gladers dispersed, leaving Anna and Newt standing with the Greenie.

"What's your name, Greenie?" Newt asked.

"Thomas," he answered, still looking confused and scared.

"Newt," he replied. Then he turned to face Anna. "Should we get Chuck?" he asked. Anna nodded. Newt walked off.

"Listen, Greenie," Anna said. "All you need to know right now is that you need to stick with Chuck, alright? He's a good kid; he'll tell you all you need to know. Oh, and I'm Anna, by the way."

Thomas nodded.

"Are you in charge?" he asked.

"Yeah," she replied. "I'm in charge, Newt's my second. You can ask us if you need help."

Anna didn't know what else to say, so she and the Greenie stood in silence until Newt returned with Chuck. Chuck seemed to have it under control, so Anna and Newt left them alone and went to go do their other work.

"Ya know, I think that kid's scared of you," Newt told her, smirking slightly as they wandered toward the others. Anna shoved him playfully.

"He is not," she said. "I'm not scary." Newt just laughed. "I think he'll be good friends with Chuck," Anna added a few moments later.

"Yeah," Newt agreed.

The next day, something unexpected happened. Anna was minding her own business with Newt around noon, and suddenly the deafening siren that signified a new Greenie began to ring through the air. Both Anna and Newt jumped, startled, and looked frantically around to see what the deal was. When they both came to the conclusion that they were somehow getting a new Greenie the day after one showed up, they ran over to the Box and waited for it to open up. When the heavy metal doors opened and revealed the inside of the Box, Anna did a double take. She jumped inside to get a closer look, and she couldn't really comprehend what she was seeing.

"Newt," she called up. "Come on in here with me." He glanced down at her and obeyed, swinging his legs over the edge and landing with an awkward _thunk._

"It's a girl," Newt said in awe. The Gladers began to murmur amongst themselves, and some of what they said didn't bear repeating, and even the Greenie seemed full of interest in this new girl. Anna rolled her eyes. Honestly, sometimes all you needed to do to get a bunch of guys' undivided attention was throw a girl into their midst. Anna was glad that she'd thought to establish a leadership role for herself early on.

"Shut up," Anna said loudly, shaking herself out of her moody thoughts. "I think she's dead."

The girl was sprawled limply on the floor of the Box, her black hair spilling all over the floor and onto her face. She didn't seem to be breathing at all. Anna wondered why they'd send a dead girl to the Glade. Suddenly and without warning, the dead girl sat up, her eyelids opening to reveal blue eyes almost as vivid as Newt's, but with a hollow, dead look in them.

"Everything is going to change," the girl said ominously, her face gaunt. Then she fell back onto the floor, her bright blue eyes shutting again. Her arm stuck straight out into the air, and Anna noticed for the first time that she was holding something in her fist.

Newt, who seemed to have noticed this as well, reached down and grabbed it before she could, unfolding it and reading it aloud.

"She's the last one. Ever," he read. The crowd fell silent. After a moment, the boys exploded in questions, and Anna had to yell at them again to get them to shut up.

"She's the last one," said Thomas, his eyes locked upon the girl's face. "There won't be any more."

"You don't say," sneered Gally.

"Shut your hole, both of you," Anna snapped. "And someone get her out of the shuck Box."

Once the girl had been transported out of the Box and onto the grass, Anna grabbed the edge of the Box and hauled herself up into the Glade, with Newt following behind her.

"Someone get Clint and Jeff," she ordered. One of the Gladers ran off in the direction of the Homestead and returned a few moments later with both of them in tow.

"What is it?" Jeff asked.

"Get her to the Homestead," Anna instructed them. They nodded, picked her up more roughly than was intended, and carried her off. "Be careful!" Anna yelled after them. She then looked back to the Gladers.

"Alright, get back to work," she growled at them. "All of you." Apparently sensing that she meant business, the Gladers obeyed her command and filed off.

"Not you," she said as Newt made to walk away. He gave her a half-smile.

"What's wrong?" he asked when she didn't return it.

"What do you mean, what's wrong?" she sighed. "The last Greenie ever just showed up in the Box, and she's a girl." Newt gave her a wry grin.

"I see what it is," he smirked. "You're _jealous_." Anna glanced at him, startled.

"I am not," she protested. "I'm just concerned for the Glade and the order with which we run things."

"Mmhmm."

"Look, Newt, I am _not_ jealous!" she cried, now thoroughly angry with him.

"Alright, alright," he said, holding up his hands to placate her. Anna sighed resignedly.

"I'm sorry," she told him. "It's just that I'm worried. You're the only one in the Glade who I'm _not_ worried about."

"Why's that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You saw how those boys were looking at her. You heard what they said. There's a reason that I had to be in charge of you shanks from the get-go. If I wasn't, they'd take advantage of me. I had to establish power. And as to why I'm not worried about you, I'll just say that I'd be _very_ angry if you fell into the same shuck trap as everyone else." Newt seemed to get her point.

"Okay," he said. "But, love, you do know that I would _never_ betray you like that. You're the only one. I promise."

Anna felt her anger and worry melt away at his words, and she smiled at him, reaching up to stroke his hair. Newt pulled her forward and kissed her, and Anna knew then that she had nothing to feel jealous about. She already had all she ever wanted.


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello again!**

 **I don't really have a lot of news, so here's the chapter!**

 **-Plerfstacks**

Chapter 12

Anna didn't see a lot of the Greenie for the next day or so. He mostly left her alone, and he spent the majority of his time with Chuck. The Greenie also seemed to have made friends with Newt, who didn't really confirm or deny this when Anna asked him. Anna wished that she could make friends with the kid, but she wasn't warming up to him very well. Maybe time would tell.

Anna's day went very much like it usually did, until about dinnertime: She woke up, found Newt, went with him to go see the Runners off, ate breakfast, and worked with the Gladers on various projects. The only time she veered from her usual schedule was that evening when she went to go see if Clint and Jeff were making any progress with the girl. They weren't, but she seemed alive enough, and Clint told Anna that as near as he could figure, the girl was in a coma.

"How's Ben?" she asked, figuring that while she was there, she might as well ask.

"I don't know," Clint admitted. "Jeff was the last one to check on him."

"Jeff," Anna said. "How's Ben?" Jeff poked his head into view from the end of the hall.

"I'm not sure," he answered. "Last time I checked, he had mostly finished the Changing, but he's still pretty bad off."

"Can I see him?" Anna asked. Clint nodded and gestured up the stairs. Anna climbed the rickety staircase that she usually avoided at all costs, wondering if this would be the time that it collapsed and she was buried under all the rubble. When she finally got to the top unscathed, she opened Ben's door slightly and peered inside. When all that she saw was an empty bed, she frowned in confusion. She checked all the other rooms with mounting panic as her search revealed nothing. Anna practically flew down the stairs, not even worrying about them collapsing, and almost ran into Clint.

"Clint," she panted, wide-eyed. "He's not there."

Clint frowned.

"Yeah, he is," he assured her. "He was there like ten minutes ago."

"Clint, I swear he's not there. He's your shucking patient. Go find him." While Clint still seemed unconvinced, he obeyed her order and walked outside, scanning the area.

"There's nothing there," he said. "Nothing at all." Anna frowned.

"Look harder. I'll check the Deadheads; you go somewhere else." Clint nodded, and they split up. Anna ran in the direction of the dense forest, looking around her for signs of the possibly addled escapee. She had only run for about ten seconds when she reached the graveyard where they'd buried George, Stephen, Jack, and all the others. The Greenie was standing there with Ben, and Ben didn't look good. He was holding a knife, for one thing, and he was staring at Thomas like he wanted to kill him with it. He was muttering things at Thomas, mostly about how Thomas was evil and trying to destroy everything. Anna stepped forward.

"Ben," she said. "Stop. He's not bad. He's just the Greenie. Put down the knife." Ben didn't put down the knife.

"Anna, listen to me," he rasped, switching the knife from hand to hand. "He's bad. He's not trying to help. He's bad, he's bad, he's bad." Anna frowned.

"You don't know what you're talking about. Put down the knife. I promise the Greenie won't hurt you." Ben glanced around like an animal caught in a cage. He crept closer to Thomas. Anna, feeling the need to defend herself and the Greenie, grabbed her switchblade, which she always kept in her pocket.

"Ben, get away from him. Put down the knife."

When Ben didn't listen to her for the third time, she decided to bluff.

"Ben, if you don't put down the knife and get away from him, I'm gonna throw this. You have till three. One." Ben didn't move. _"Two."_ He fingered his knife's blade in a slightly nervous fashion. _"Three!"_

Anna had never intended to throw the knife. She didn't want to kill anybody. When she got to three, she blanked. Ben sensed her pause and took advantage, leaping forward and trying to tackle Thomas. Anna recognized her mistake and jumped on top of them, wrestling the sickly boy off of the Greenie. She realized suddenly that it had been a lot easier to lift him off of Thomas than it should have been, and she looked down to see that her hands were sticky with blood. Ben was lying limply on the ground with his own knife stuck in his head. Anna fought the urge to throw up. The Greenie scooted backwards, the expression on his face making it clear that he was fighting the same battle that Anna was. Anna cursed, unable to do anything else. She gathered her wits and stood up.

"C'mon, Greenie," she said hollowly. "The Baggers'll come get him later." The Greenie stood up to join her, and the two of them walked silently towards the Glade. Thomas made it to about ten feet from the border before he doubled over and threw up, his left hand clutching his stomach and his right hand pressed against a tree trunk. Anna waited patiently for him to quit puking, and then continued walking.

She was peppered with questions as she walked back into the Glade covered in blood with the Greenie trailing behind her, but she waved them away numbly, looking around for her second. She eventually spotted him making his way quickly over to where they stood, and when he reached them, Anna could see concern etched all over his face. Ignoring the Greenie, he addressed Anna.

"What happened? Are you alright? Why are you covered in blood?" he asked her, giving her no time to respond between his questions. She held a hand up to quiet him.

"Shhh. Give me a second to talk and I'll tell you." Newt looked at her expectantly.

"Yes?"

"Ben escaped from the Homestead, and I went to go find him. I checked in the Deadheads, and I found him with the Greenie. He was holding a knife and saying that the Greenbean was gonna destroy life as we know it and whatever, so I told him I'd throw my switchblade on the count of three if he didn't put his knife down. I was bluffing, so when I got to three I didn't throw it, and I guess he could tell I wasn't gonna. He jumped on Thomas, so I tried to wrestle him off, but I guess he'd misjudged where his knife was, because he accidentally stabbed himself in the head."

Newt looked bewildered.

"He accidentally killed himself. That's what you're saying?" Anna nodded.

"Yeah. We need to go get the Baggers."

Newt suddenly turned and looked around at the small crowd that had gathered around them.

"Go away!" he yelled at them. "We'll tell you about it tomorrow. Get to bed."

The crowd filed off, and Anna shooed the Greenie away, as well. She looked miserably down at her blood-soaked hands.

"I'm gonna go take a shower," she decided. "I have to get this off of me."

Anna had trouble falling asleep that night, as her mind was occupied with thoughts of Ben, and how she may have been the one who'd killed him. She didn't want to dwell on this, but by trying not to think of it she managed to keep herself up until about midnight, when she finally fell asleep.

She'd only gotten about three or four hours of sleep before she awoke with a small, hastily stifled yelp. She had no idea what had woken her up, and she lay face up in the darkness of her room, trying to steady her breathing and the pounding of her heart which throbbed through her like a drumbeat. After a moment or so, there was a small knock at her door that scared Anna half to death. She jumped slightly, causing her mattress to bounce up and down rhythmically. Collecting herself, she managed to call out,

"Who is it?"

"Newt," he whispered. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah."

Newt opened her door and stepped inside, leaving it open behind him. He walked over to her bed and sat on the side of the mattress.

"What's wrong?" he asked, smoothing Anna's hair back. She looked up at him, propping herself up on her elbow.

"Something woke me up, but I'm okay now."

"Alright. Should I leave?" Anna found herself shaking her head before she could stop it.

"No," she responded. "You can stay here." She scooted over and pulled him close to her. Newt's hair tickled her nose as he lay down next to her, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Anna pressed her cheek into his chest, and with Newt's warm breath ruffling her hair, she fell asleep.

The next day, one of the Baggers came to Anna with some interesting news. When they were trying to move Ben's body, they had realized that he wasn't dead. The knife had missed his brain, and he was currently in the Slammer, awaiting trial.

Anna called a meeting of the Council, because she didn't know what else to do. She explained what had happened, and that they needed to figure out what to do with Ben. They discussed the options: They could let him off and chalk the little incident up to the fault of the Grievers, they could make him stay in the Slammer for a set amount of time, or they could Banish him. Anna felt very uncomfortable about that last one, because she had seen it happen before, and it was never pretty. She did have to take into account, though, that he had broken one of their rules. In fact, he'd broken two of them, because they wouldn't have this problem if he hadn't been a slinthead and walked into the Maze in the first place. He'd attempted to kill the Greenie, which had to count against him, and to add to it, he'd actually _bitten_ Thomas, which Anna hadn't noticed the night before.

For her vote, Anna suggested that they keep him in the Slammer until they decided that he was stable enough to be a member of the Glade again. Unfortunately, she and the few other people who were in favor of her idea (Newt, Zart, and Minho), were outvoted, and they decided to Banish Ben that night.

Anna hated every second of the whole shuck ceremony that they put on. She hated that she had to be a part of it, and most of all she hated how she was being forced to officiate the whole thing, along with Newt. She could tell that he felt the same way as she did, based on his expression of a mixture of pity, shame, and sadness. After the Doors had closed, Anna walked miserably to her room and stayed there until the next morning.

Anna could tell that the Greenie had been disturbed by the previous night's events, to say the least. He was avoiding everyone, and he wasn't talking a lot. Anna could tell that he was sort of appalled by what they had done to Ben, and she wanted to clear up the fact that she hadn't wanted to, but she decided that that wasn't really the right way to go. Instead, she resumed ignoring the kid unless it was necessary to talk to him.

The next day, Anna was working in the Fields with Zart and the other Track-Hoes when she heard her name being called from somewhere within the Glade. She glanced up, her mind immediately flashing back to a very similar situation that hadn't ended very well. Her panic subsided, however, when she realized that it was the Greenie, sitting on the ground beside Minho, who had apparently finished running. Anna ran over to where they were now engaged in conversation.

"Shut your shuck mouth, Greenie," Minho was panting. "Gimme a second."

"What's up, Minho?" Anna asked. "Why are you back so early?"

"Why is everyone coming to talk to me?" he coughed, running a hand through his sweaty hair. "I need water. Go get me some water, Anna."

Anna considered retaliating, but instead smirked and ran off to go get Minho some water. When she returned and Minho had composed himself some, she raised an eyebrow expectantly, waiting for him to fill her in. Before he began his story, he glanced sideways at the Greenie and tilted his head to the side.

"Yeah," she said dismissively. "He can listen. Get on with it." Minho shrugged and began to tell them about how he'd been running around the Maze when he'd stumbled upon a dead Griever.

"Wait," the Greenie interrupted. "This hasn't happened before?"

"Of course it has, slinthead," Anna snapped sarcastically. "It happens every day. That's why Minho ran all the way back here two hours before he was supposed to." The Greenie frowned, but didn't say anything. Minho shot him a look and continued.

"Yeah, I didn't want to pick it up, 'cause those things have to weigh a ton. You and I could probably go see it, though, and we could get there and back by sunset."

Anna nodded.

"Alright," she agreed. "I'll put Newt in charge."

About ten minutes later, she and Minho were in the Maze. It took them about an hour to get to where the dead Griever was, and when Anna laid eyes on the thing, she was filled with a primal panic and her brain screamed for her to run away. She stood her ground, though, and assured herself that it couldn't hurt her; it was dead.

"Shuck it," she said in awe. Minho nodded.

"Yeah," he agreed. "I wasn't sure what to think, 'cause I've never seen one up close. It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be."

Suddenly, there was a faint whirring noise that Anna dismissed as her own active imagination until Minho's face went pale as he stared at something behind her. Anna spun around just in time to see the Griever hauling itself into a standing position and turning to face them. Anna froze, her eyes widening as she forgot how to move. Minho was yelling at her to snap out of it, but by the time that she blinked and realized what was going on, something heavy flung around and hit her in the back of the head, and she was out like a light.

When Anna came to a little while later, she was met with a lot of commotion. The familiar rumbling of the Doors closing had filled the air, along with a lot of yelling. She blinked bewilderedly, trying to comprehend the situation. Suddenly, somebody flew past her into the Maze, and she was simultaneously thrown out the door, landing on the grass. The Doors shut with a crash, and all the noise stopped. Anna sat up shakily, wincing as she touched the lump that had formed on the back of her head. Suddenly, the brief moment of silence was broken, and Anna was once again overwhelmed by the noise. She stood up, leaning against the wall of the Maze.

" _What's going on?"_ she yelled. The Gladers looked at her. Newt shouldered his way through the crowd, and he came to a stop in front of her. His face was gaunt and his hair was disheveled, and his expression was unreadable as he looked at her.

"Anna…" he murmured. "Oh, God, Anna." He turned to the crowd of Gladers, which had already begun to disperse. "Alright, guys, you can go," he said to them in a voice that was much less commanding than the one he usually used with the Gladers. Avoiding eye contact with Anna, they all turned and left.

"What happened?" she asked, frowning at Newt.

"You almost _died,_ that's what bloody happened."

"Explain," she pressed.

"You and Minho were out way too long. When we could finally see you two coming out of the Maze, Minho was carrying you, and I thought you'd died. Minho almost made it out, but apparently Tommy decided it was a good idea to run into the Maze with you, so he ran through the Doors as they were closing. Minho chucked you out the door, and then it closed. Minho and Tommy are still in there."

Anna took a moment to realize the enormity of what had happened.

"So… They're _dead?"_ she asked, unable to believe it. They'd never lost two Gladers simultaneously. She felt like she'd failed in some way, like she wasn't good enough at her job. "Shuck it, I'm such an idiot." Anna was flooded with guilt. If she hadn't panicked, Minho and Thomas wouldn't be dead.

"How?" Newt asked. "It wasn't your fault."

"Yeah, it was," Anna confessed, feeling her cheeks grow warm as hot tears welled up in her eyes. Blinking them away, she went on. "The Griever wasn't dead. It sort of stood up, and I completely froze. It hit me on the head with something heavy. If I hadn't panicked, Minho wouldn't have had to drag me along and we would've made it on time." Newt frowned.

"It's not your fault," he told her gently. "These things happen." Apparently able to tell that she was still upset, Newt reached forward and wrapped his arms around Anna, stroking her hair with one hand. The two of them stood there for an immeasurable amount of time, until Anna let go of him and they walked off to bed.

"You know what I just realized?" Newt said as they walked hand-in-hand to the Homestead. "The Grievers keep ignoring you. They keep hitting you with stuff instead of stinging you. I wonder why?" Anna shrugged, unwilling to discuss this.

Later that night, though, as she was somewhere between waking and sleeping, she began to ponder this as well. Why weren't the Creators letting her go through the Changing? What would happen if she did that they didn't want happening?


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey everybody! I'm back!**

 **Sorry for the late updates- I'm having trouble with following the book's storyline. But I'm here now with a new chapter! :)**

 **Hopefully I'm gonna be able to get you guys another chapter by Monday or so, but I'm not sure yet, so just keep an eye out!**

 **Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and if you have an idea for another story you want me to try and write, I'm always thankful for suggestions!**

 **I forgot to put a smiley face at the end of the last author's note, so I'll put two this time ;)**

 **-Plerfstacks :) :)**

Chapter 13

The next morning, Anna was up before the first shimmering rays of sunlight began to spill through her window. She blinked, foggily trying to remember what was nagging at the edge of her mind. Then the previous night's events came flooding back to her and she rolled over onto her side, wishing that she could forget again. After a moment, Anna realized that she wasn't going back to sleep any time soon, and she reluctantly yanked the sheets off of herself and stood up. As she did so, her head began to throb painfully and she was momentarily confused as to why. _These are the consequences of being hit on the head with a heavy object, Anna,_ she reminded herself. She mumbled her annoyances as she tugged on her shirt and capris. Yanking her boots onto her feet, she trudged out the door and into the beginnings of dawn. She glanced over at the barely-visible East Doors, that all-too-familiar pang of guilt coursing through her before she looked away.

Anna realized that she was hungry, and as a way to get her mind off of things, she went to the kitchen and stole some of Frypan's food. Walking back outside, she found that the sun had come up and the Runners were just coming out. When she approached them, they seemed very subdued, which was understandable. They, out of all the Gladers, had suffered the most in their time trapped there. They'd lost two Keepers now, although, to be fair, one of them was still around; he just wasn't the Keeper anymore. The only members of the original group of Runners that were left were Matt, Rob, and Dan.

Anna followed the Runners to the East Doors to see them off, because she had nothing better to do. The Doors began to open a few minutes after they began waiting, most likely waking everyone up with their loud scraping and rumbling. When they'd opened fully, Anna noticed something inside the Maze. Surprisingly, her first reaction was anger. Why did the Creators keep sending Grievers after them? As she peered closer into the dark hallway of the Maze, however, she realized that it wasn't a Griever. It was two _people,_ strolling along like it was an everyday occurrence to walk right out of the Maze after being stuck in there all night. As they walked closer, Anna finally made out their features, and once she'd figured it out, she was surprised at herself for not realizing it earlier.

"Minho!" she cried, rising up onto her toes in an attempt to run into the Maze with them. She stopped herself at the last second, though. She wanted no part of the shuck Maze. Anna instead waited with the Runners for Minho and the Greenie to come out. When they had finally dragged themselves into the Glade, and Anna had taken a look at them, she had about a million and one questions. The two very bedraggled Gladers stood there for a second before Minho broke into hysterical laughter. Glancing around with an insane giddiness in his eyes, he turned to look at the Maze. Recovering himself, he looked back at Anna.

"What the shuck, Minho?" she laughed as the realization hit her that the two Gladers really weren't dead. "I thought you'd both died!"

"I did, too," Minho admitted, pushing his sweaty, dirty hair out of his eyes. "I would've been, if it weren't for Thomas here."

Thomas, who seemed shaken, looked up for the first time. Minho continued.

"The Doors closed, and I thought we were goners. I figured we should split up, so I ran, but Thomas kept his cool the whole time. The shank saved my life."

"What?" Anna asked, squinting. "Wait. You know what? Leave it for later. Tell me the story once you two have eaten something, and taken a shower. And while you're at it, go find Clint and Jeff. They're gonna go completely to town on you guys."

Minho nodded.

"Good idea," Thomas agreed. He and Minho walked off, but Anna reached out and grabbed Thomas' shirt sleeve before he could walk away.

"Wait," she said. He looked at her expectantly.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Um… Thanks, Greenie. For saving Minho."

Thomas' face lit up in a smile, and he nodded and turned around and went to join Minho.

Anna realized abruptly that Newt wasn't up yet, and therefore hadn't heard the news, so she went to go find him.

She met up with him in front of the Homestead, where he was standing looking very confused. By the look of his bedhead and lack of a shirt, he'd just woken up and walked outside to see what all the noise was about. Anna resisted the urge to tousle his already tangled hair, and instead got right to business.

"Minho and the Greenie aren't dead, Newt," she told him matter-of-factly. He blinked blearily at her.

"Run that by me again?" he asked, his voice husky.

"They just came out of the Maze. They're over with Frypan now, probably. I told them to eat something, take a shower, go find Clint and Jeff, and then get back to me."

"Anna, are you okay?"

Anna sighed in exasperation.

 _"Yes,_ Newt," she said. "We could go find them right now."

She turned around and motioned for him to follow her, but instead he reached out and grabbed her wrist.

"Slow down," he said. "I just woke up. Lemme get a bloody shirt on." Anna smirked, shooing him inside while feigning shock at his indecency. Once Newt had returned and was satisfied, he and Anna ran over to find Minho and the Greenie. They eventually discovered them sitting in the kitchen, each with a bowl of cereal perched on their knee, glancing over their shoulders periodically.

"Hey," Anna said, walking inside. Minho and Thomas practically jumped out of their skin at the sound of her voice, and they both whipped around to face her and Newt. She stepped back slightly, holding her hands out in front of her.

"Whoa. Calm down. It's us," she assured them. Sighing in relief, Minho turned back to his cereal.

"Shuck it, you scared me. I thought you were Frypan coming to murder us for sneaking in here."

Newt laughed.

"I can't bloody believe that you guys made it," he confessed, striding over and sitting down beside Minho. Anna joined them on the floor, and the four of them sat in silence for about a minute before Anna grew impatient, as she often did.

"Are you guys ready to tell me the whole story?"

"I'll probably start babbling again," Minho admitted. "Come back later."

Anna nodded and walked out with Newt trailing behind her.

"They're really _alive_ ," he was murmuring, seemingly to himself. Anna smiled, discreetly slowing down a pace and reaching behind her to slip her hand into Newt's. He glanced down at her fingers intertwining with his and returned her smile.

By the time that Anna got the story out of Minho and the Greenie, it was about nine or ten in the morning. Apparently, Minho had run off, leaving Thomas to fend for himself. Thomas had climbed up onto the wall to avoid the Grievers, and only met back up with Minho once a high-speed chase had ensued. The two of them had tricked the Grievers into jumping off the Cliff, and they'd stayed there for the rest of the night. They had noticed while they were there, though, that some of the things that were thrown off the Cliff seemed to disappear into thin air after about ten feet, instead of falling an apparently infinite distance to whatever lay below. They had experimented with this some, and had come to the conclusion that there was a relatively small space in the air below the Cliff that seemed to, in Minho's words, "eat" the stuff that was thrown in it.

Anna was taken aback by the story, and had to run it through in her head multiple times before it sunk in completely. By the time she fully comprehended the situation, she was awash with curiosity and a little bit of fear, too. What if this new discovery proved to be the breakthrough that she and the Gladers had been searching for for two years? And what lay beyond the mysterious empty space below the Cliff?


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey everyone!**

 **I don't have any big news for you guys today, so here's chapter 14!**

 **-Plerfstacks :)**

 **P.S. If you have any ideas for one-shots or other stories I could write, I'm still happy to hear suggestions!**

Chapter 14

Later that day, once the shock of what had happened wore off, Anna and Newt began working out what to do with the Greenie. Anna couldn't figure out whether to punish him or try to exploit his apparent ability to discover things that they'd been looking for (and failing miserably) for two years. Since neither she nor Newt could come up with a solution, they called a meeting of the Council. Anna decided to let the Greenie come, too, because the whole point of the meeting was centered on him. She had told him; however, that she wasn't gonna let him defend himself at all, because he would mess up the decision. Minho would tell the story, and Thomas had better hope that he was in favor of him.

"Hey," Anna shouted, as had become customary at the beginning of a meeting. "Guys! I thought we'd been over this. Shut up!"

The Gladers shut up, and she glanced over at Newt. He gestured with his chin over at Minho, and Anna nodded.

"Minho," she said. "Can you tell us what exactly happened?"

Minho went on to tell the long story that he'd told Anna earlier, and once he was finished, the Gladers each had a different expression on their face. Some were full of awe, some were disgusted, some were confused.

Anna figured that they wouldn't get anywhere trying to discuss this as a whole, so she decided to take a vote. Each Glader submitted their suggestion, and then they would vote. Anna was personally in favor of putting the shank in the Slammer for a week or so, and then letting him back out to go find a job. Newt, on the other hand, wanted Thomas to spend just a day in the Slammer, and then he could begin training to become a Runner.

Anna looked at him in disbelief. _A Runner?,_ she asked him silently. He nodded slightly but didn't say anything. She figured that she shouldn't judge, but she couldn't see the Greenie ever becoming a Runner.

Newt's vote won. Anna was completely taken off guard by the whole thing, and, alright, she was a little annoyed with Newt for suggesting it.

To top the whole shuck problem off, Gally had gone nuts during the meeting and had threatened to kill Thomas. After his brief temper tantrum and wrestling match with Minho, he'd run into the Maze. For some reason, Gally seemed to hate the Greenie even more than he hated everything else, and Anna wasn't sure why.

She'd figure out what to do with him later, though, because Newt had told her something that the Greenie had said to him that was a bit unsettling. Apparently the kid had been feeling like he'd been to the Glade before, and had wanted to be a Runner from the beginning. Newt had told him to wait for him while he went to talk to Anna, and since she had no idea what to make of it, she and Newt went together back to find the Greenie.

"Newt told me what you told him," she said as soon as she walked up to him.

"You're sure this hasn't happened before?" Thomas asked. Newt gave an exasperated sigh.

"No, Tommy. That's why I went to go get shucking Anna."

"We need to go see the other girl," Anna decided. "Maybe Thomas the Prophet here can figure something out."

She turned and walked towards the Homestead, gesturing for Newt and Thomas to follow her. They met up with Clint at the door, and when Anna asked for an update on the girl, he just shrugged and said that she'd been mumbling stuff in her sleep.

"What sort of stuff?" Anna asked.

"The same old thing," Clint said. "And… she keeps saying "Thomas" over and over."

Anna glanced over at the Greenie, who looked confused and slightly overwhelmed. She said nothing, however, as Clint showed them the room that they were keeping the girl in.

Anna, Newt, and Thomas filed in and stood awkwardly around the bed for a moment.

"Alright, Thomas," Anna said after a moment. "Are you getting anything?"

He didn't say anything, but continued to stare down at the girl lying on the bed before them. His eyes trained on her face, but Anna couldn't see any recognition in them. Suddenly he blinked and looked at Anna and Newt.

"I know her," he said. "I remember her from somewhere."

"Where?" Newt asked. The Greenie knit his brow and stared back down at the girl.

"I don't know."

"Well that's not much bloody help, now, is it?" Newt said in exasperation.

Thomas didn't retaliate but continued to concentrate on the unconscious girl's face. Suddenly his eyes opened wide and he jumped slightly.

"What did you say?" he asked Anna, spinning around to face her. Anna frowned.

"I didn't say a shuck thing."

"I heard a name. Teresa." he told them.

"That must be her name, then," Newt said excitedly. "You must've remembered."

"I _heard_ it, though," Thomas protested. He looked confused for a second, but then the expression on his face was replaced with surprise and fear as he spun around two or three times and stared around at Anna and Newt, wide-eyed.

"What's wrong?" Anna asked.

"I'm hearing voices," Thomas said. "In my head. You can't hear that?"

" _No,_ Tommy. What're you on about?" Newt asked. Thomas didn't answer, but instead jumped back and knocked over the lamp sitting on the table beside the bed. It fell to the floor and shattered, spraying Anna's legs with broken glass. She glared at him and grabbed his shoulders, forcing him down into a chair.

"Slinthead," she growled. "Get a hold of yourself and _talk to us._ "

"The girl's talking to me," he cried. "In my head."

"What?" Newt asked.

"It's like I'm hearing a voice," Thomas tried to explain. "But you guys can't hear it. I'm telling the truth."

He then jumped up from the chair and ran from the room. Anna ran after him, but he'd run all the way to the Maze before she could stop him. Realizing she wasn't gonna catch him, Anna watched him go, disappearing through the West Doors.

Suddenly she felt a hand press down on her shoulder, and she looked over to see Newt clinging to her.

"Newt!" she said. "What've I told you?"

"Sorry," he replied. "You ran off. It was an instinct." He let go of her shoulder and winced as he shifted his weight onto his left foot. He glanced down at Anna's feet.

"You're bleeding," he told her, pointing. She looked at her legs. Sure enough, a few little rivulets of shiny, dark red liquid were streaming down into her boots.

"Oh, yeah," she remembered. "The shuck lamp broke on me." Newt nodded, frowning.

"Where's Tommy gone?" Newt asked after a moment.

"He ran into the Maze," Anna responded, not making eye contact. "I don't know whether he's coming back."

Newt groaned and swore, pushing his blond hair out of his eyes.

"What's up with that kid and the bloody Maze? He's run in there twice now and it's been like three days since he got here."

Anna shrugged.

"That shank's either really, really dumb… or crazy… _or_ he knows something we don't."

"I'm betting it's the last option," Newt answered softly.

Thomas showed up about an hour later, and Anna had some choice words for him. She yelled at him for about ten minutes before she released him to go do whatever shuck thing he wanted to do.

He went straight for the Deadheads, and when Anna went looking for him a couple hours later, he was fast asleep, leaning against the Maze wall. Anna looked at him for a second, and as she did so she realized that he was just a normal kid. Not a spy, or some sort of bringer of certain doom. He was just a teenager without any recollection of his life before the Maze. Taking pity on him, Anna walked to the Homestead and returned with two or three blankets from the supply closet. She placed them awkwardly on top of him and crept silently away, careful to be quiet for fear that Thomas would wake up and realize that the scary, menacing leader of the Glade was actually a pathetic softie.

The next morning, Anna and Thomas resumed their usual relationship—that is, ignorance of one another unless otherwise necessary. Of course, it was hard for Anna to interact with him that day, because Newt had locked him in the Slammer after breakfast. Anna still thought it unfair that the Greenie only had to spend a day in the Slammer when they'd Banished people before on the same offense, but she was no longer opposed to him becoming a Runner. She figured that it was the best job for a kid who seemed to have a knack for solving problems that Anna and the rest of the Gladers had been puzzling over for two years.

He went running with Minho the next day. Anna was a little worried to see their gold mine of information running out there to risk his life, but she figured that he couldn't _be_ a gold mine if he were cooped up in the Glade with the rest of them. He returned from running without anything interesting, though, so she was sort of disappointed.

When Anna opened her eyes the next morning, she could tell that something was wrong. At first it was just a feeling nagging at the back of her head, but when she walked outside she could tell that there was something very off. The sun had completely disappeared from the sky, leaving a drab gray canvas, almost like a screen. Anna looked around, trying to figure out where the sun had gone. Once she'd decided that she wasn't gonna find it and she was stupid to be looking for it, Anna went and told the Runners that they were still running that day, even though the sun had mysteriously disappeared. They could use their wristwatches to figure out what time they should get back.

The Gladers were all in a panic by the time that Anna got back from monitoring the Runners (and the Greenie), and it took her a good five or ten minutes to get them to stop running around. The schedule continued as normal once they'd gotten situated and calmed down, and Anna dedicated her time to helping Zart with harvesting the crops that were big enough to eat. The sun was gone, and with it went their food source. They needed to get up as much as they could before the plants died. She'd also instructed Winston to try and ration their meat supply, as well. By the time they were finished, she and the Track-Hoes had unearthed about a week's worth of scrawny, premature radishes and potatoes.

Anna remembered suddenly that the supplies were supposed to come that day, and she practically sprinted over to the Box in hopes that there would be food for them to add to their now-limited supply. Instead she found a pair of metal doors, shut tightly without any sign of being about to open up. She gave a small, involuntary groan of despair as she added this to her list of huge problems.

She found Newt and informed him of the recent development, and the two of them spent the rest of the day telling the Gladers about it and instructing them to try and get as much work done as they could.

The Runners returned at the right time that night, despite the missing sun. As soon as they'd come out of the Maze, Minho and Thomas tracked Anna and Newt down to tell them of a recent discovery that they'd made.

Apparently, they'd been throwing rocks off of the Cliff, and they had confirmed once again that there was a hole there (the Griever Hole, as Thomas had named it) into which Grievers could jump. Possibly they lived there, but there wasn't any evidence supporting this claim.

"Well, that's nice and all, but we've got bad news," Anna said. "The shuck supplies didn't come up today. They've come up on the same day every week for two years and now they're not here."

"Shuck it," Minho muttered. "That's not good."

"We've already told the whole Glade," Newt said. "We're gonna ration as well as we can."

Minho nodded. They lapsed into silence, but were suddenly interrupted by Chuck running over and yelling,

 _"She's awake! The girl woke up!"_


	15. Chapter 15

**Hello everyone!**

 **I got a bit carried away with this chapter, so it's longer than most of them. Hope you enjoy!**

 **One more thing- It might seem like I'm just pretty much following the storyline of the Maze Runner, which I am, but I promise it'll get more exciting once I get to the next couple chapters and the Scorch Trials fanfic!**

 **-Plerfstacks :)**

Chapter 15

Anna and Newt forgot all about Thomas and Minho and went to go find the girl. Chuck trailed behind them, bouncing along in a manner that was part excited, part terrified. They didn't find her immediately, and after about five minutes they had a bigger problem on their hands.

"The shuck Doors," Newt blurted suddenly, looking down at his watch, his voice tinged with panic. "Why aren't they closing?" Anna glanced at her own watch, which read 6:45.

"Oh, no," Anna muttered. "Oh, shuck it."

It was true. The Doors, which should have closed almost fifteen minutes ago, remained wide open. If they stayed like that all night, the Glade would be overrun by Grievers in no time. Anna ran a hand through her hair absently as she tried to figure out what they should do.

Newt's voice broke through her thoughts.

"We need to go find Tommy and the girl—Teresa," he decided. "It can't be a coincidence that all this stuff started happening as soon as they showed up."

Anna nodded. She looked around the Glade for a clue as to where they'd gone. Suddenly her eyes came to rest on the thick overgrowth of the Deadheads.

"I think I know where to look," she said with as much confidence as she could muster. Newt gave a small nod and the two of them walked to the Deadheads as quickly as Newt could manage. After two minutes of intense searching and mounting annoyance, they came across Thomas and Teresa sitting up against the same wall that had become Thomas' favorite hiding place. The two were in an animated conversation, and they didn't seem to notice Anna and Newt until they had walked up to them and Anna had cleared her throat loudly.

"Excuse me? Lovebirds?" she said, slightly angrily. "Can you two stop flirting and explain to me what the shuck is going on?"

Thomas turned bright red, but Teresa just stared at Anna coldly.

"What do you mean, what's going on?" she asked. Anna noticed absently that this was the first feminine voice other than her own that she'd heard in her entire living memory. Disregarding this, she glared at them.

"Look at the time, slinthead! The shuck Doors! They were supposed to _close._ "

Thomas' eyes widened as he apparently realized the situation that they were in.

"And also," Newt added. "How the shuck did you manage to get up and out of the Homestead so bloody fast? Jeff told me that you were there one second, gone the next."

Teresa smirked.

"I kicked him and climbed out the window," she told them. "Maybe he didn't tell you that."

Newt stifled a laugh that went unnoticed by everyone but Anna. Ignoring this, she pressed on.

"What did you do, though?" she asked. "Everything's gone wrong ever since you and Thomas showed up."

"I triggered something," Teresa replied. "I didn't mean to. It just happened."

Anna frowned.

"Teresa, we're gonna stick you in the Slammer for the time being," she told her briskly. "Nothing personal. I just want to be safe."

Teresa didn't protest as Anna called two of the Gladers over to escort her away, but Thomas did. He glared at Anna angrily and asked her repeatedly why the shuck she needed to do that. Anna disregarded him and went to round up the Gladers in one place so they could escape the Grievers.

After ten minutes of yelling, shepherding, eye rolling, and more yelling, Anna and Newt had finally gotten every single Glader into the Homestead for the night. They managed to cram all of them into the bottom floor, simply because Anna didn't feel entirely safe sheltering people from an attack by putting them on the top floor of a very rickety, poorly built building. The Gladers spoke in hushed tones amongst themselves as Anna and Newt had a small conference to discuss what they should do in the event of a Griever trying to break in.

"We've boarded up the bloody windows and doors," Newt protested. "There's nothing else we can do."

"I know, but we need to be able to get people out of the building, or at least upstairs, in a relatively quick amount of time," Anna pointed out. "Odds are a Griever is gonna try and get in, and we have to know what to do. We're gonna give these shanks a shucking safety presentation."

"You're the boss," Newt said, shrugging. Anna turned back to the teeming, nervous crowd.

"Alright guys, listen up!" she called. The room fell silent. Anna continued. "You're probably all very confused and afraid right now, and I am too. Basically, for you guys who don't know what's going on, we're under attack by a whole bunch of Grievers. We need to all remain calm and orderly if—when—we have some sort of emergency. Got it? So you guys just stay quiet and listen to me if I talk to you, okay?"

There was a murmur of assent throughout the Gladers, and Anna nodded and leaned against the wall, finished with her speech. Apparently noticing that she was done talking, the Gladers began to diffuse into the rooms of the Homestead, and Anna ended up with Minho, Newt, and Thomas in one of the rooms that Clint and Jeff often used.

"Good work, love," Newt said quietly after a moment, the corner of his mouth quirking upward slightly. "That was quite the rousing pep talk."

"Shut up," she laughed, giving him a gentle shove. Newt smiled, wrapping his arm around Anna's shoulders and kissing her cheek. Anna nestled her head against him and gave a satisfied smile. She caught Thomas staring at her from across the room, as if he'd just now noticed that Anna and Newt were "friends that happen to be in a romantic relationship," as Anna liked to put it. She cocked an eyebrow at him, half-smiling. She grinned when he turned away, his face reddening.

Though Anna would have liked to remain in this illusion of safety and calm, she eventually realized that she was, in fact, facing an attack of multiple Grievers, and couldn't, therefore, continue to pretend that she wasn't. She sighed, a wave of sadness and fear covering her like a blanket. Anna leaned closer against Newt and tried to fall asleep, but found she couldn't. The room had lapsed into a heavy silence that hadn't lifted for the past hour or so.

Anna finally fell asleep, but was woken up about two hours after she had by a mechanized whirring outside the window. She leapt to her feet and crept to the window, joined almost immediately by Thomas, Minho, and Newt standing right next to her. She shushed them and peered outside. There was a Griever right outside, its disgusting fleshy body slapping the ground with wet smacking sounds as it searched for something, presumably them. It shone its lights over the ground as it squished around, and Anna just stood there, paralyzed, until the door to the room was flung open and she whipped around. She wasn't sure what to expect, but the one thing she hadn't been expecting was Gally, standing in the hallway. He looked a wreck, and he immediately began to scream strings of words that made no sense to Anna.

"The Grievers will kill you!" he was yelling. "One a night till you're all dead!"

He lurched over to Thomas and began to accuse him of causing this whole problem, and before Anna could stop him, he'd reared back and punched Thomas in the face. Thomas fell to the ground, but jumped right back up as soon as he did so.

Anna and Newt frantically tried to quiet Gally, who'd broken down into hysterics, but he wasn't having it. He ran over to the window and began ripping it apart, grabbing the boards and attempting to tear them off.

"Stop!" Newt shouted, rushing forward in an attempt to get Gally under control. Gally didn't even look back at him, and by the time Newt had reached him, he'd grabbed a two-by-four and swung it full-force at Newt's head. He was knocked airborne for a second, and sprawled onto the bed, which was instantly speckled with blood. Watching this scene unfold before her, Anna let out an almost inhuman noise of rage and fear, and launched herself at Gally, punching him in the jaw with as much force as she could manage. He was unfazed by this, and simply shoved Anna off of him and into a table. Her head throbbing from where it had connected with the hard wooden surface, Anna stood up. Instead of trying to kill Gally again, she ran over to where Newt still wasn't moving. She grabbed his jaw in one hand and tilted his head to the side to inspect the damage that Gally had done to him. She cringed at the amount of blood pouring from his temple, and before she could do anything, somebody grabbed her shoulder.

 _"Run, Anna!"_ Minho was yelling at her, and she turned to see a shucking Griever trying to force its way into the room. She stood up immediately, but she couldn't leave Newt. Gally solved this problem for her, however, by jumping on top of the Griever and apparently trying to wrestle it. He seemed to dive directlyinto the Griever's squishy body, and the horrific thing rolled out the window as quickly as it had come. Anna, Thomas, and Newt were the only ones left in the room, as Minho had apparently left them. Anna lost no time in trying to rouse Newt, who was still unconscious. Ignoring Thomas, who had run to look out the shattered window, she sat next to him on the bed and took his hand, squeezing it as hard as she could without hurting him.

"Newt," she said, her voice still slightly shaky from what had just occurred. "Newt, wake up."

He gave a small moan and opened his eyes, looking up at her bewilderedly.

"What?" he asked.

"We gotta go," Anna told him, walking to the door. She grabbed a hand towel from the closet in the hall and handed it to him, and he pressed it against the gash that Gally had made in his head.

"Are you okay?" she asked, peering at him in concern. He nodded.

"I'm fine." Then, a few seconds later, under his breath, "Shuck it, my bloody head hurts."

Anna reached down and twined her fingers through his, but she gave no other indication to having heard. After a second, she got up and looked out the window that Thomas had abandoned, just in time to see a figure that looked very much like Minho sprint towards the Maze.

"Shuck," she said under her breath. Newt looked up at her.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"C'mon," she muttered. "Get up. We've got to go. Minho just ran into the Maze."

Newt stood up without asking questions and followed her outside, where Thomas was jogging uncertainly towards where Minho had just disappeared.

"Hey!" Newt called. "Tommy!"

Thomas turned around and began to run towards them instead of the Maze.

"Minho's gone," he said breathlessly.

"Yeah, I saw," Anna replied, glancing around the Glade to assess the damage.

The place was in total chaos, with Gladers running around every which way, and nobody seemed to know what was going on. Thomas' voice broke through her haze.

"I'm gonna go in after him," he said with little confidence. Anna frowned.

"You gonna be all shuck noble again?" she asked spitefully. He looked at her, hurt flashing across his face before he answered.

"No," he replied. "I want to figure this place out, just like you guys."

"Yeah, whatever, Greenie," Anna sneered, rolling her eyes. Newt stepped forward.

"Break it up, guys. I swear, I can't go one bloody second without you two bickering about one thing or another."

Anna stared at Newt, unsure whether to be angry or remorseful. She settled on angry, and she shot the Greenie a glare before looking back at the Maze. Suddenly there was movement inside, and Anna peered closer, trying to make it out.

Minho came running into the Glade, his hair tousled. He came to a stop in front of Anna, Newt and Thomas, and he bent double, trying to catch his breath.

"What were you doing out there, idiot?" Anna asked him, kicking the sole of his shoe lightly to get his attention.

"I wanted to see if the Griever went over the Cliff," he panted.

"And?" Anna pressed.

"Yep," he replied. "Right into the Griever Hole."

Thomas, after hearing all the news that there was to be had, ran off to go find his girlfriend. Anna, Newt, and Minho remained standing there, and eventually Anna walked off to go rally the Gladers. They were still panicking all over the place, and Anna figured that she should be helping in some way instead of standing around with Newt and Minho. After about ten minutes, she'd gotten them together and explained to them what they were gonna do. Then she released them to go work as normal until later that night. Anna couldn't find it in herself to go back to her usual schedule, though, so she passed the time by walking around the Glade restlessly, unable to sit still. An immeasurable amount of time passed before Anna's name was called from behind her and she turned around.

"What?" she asked, both excited and annoyed to see the Greenie running over to her with Teresa in tow. "Wait, how'd you get out of the Slammer?" she asked Teresa after a second.

"Newt let me out," she replied. "But that's not important. Thomas figured out something. Maybe it could be the way out."

Anna leaned in closer.

"Then spit it out," she said excitedly. Thomas glanced around nervously.

"Teresa told me when she first woke up that the Maze is a code. It's trying to tell us something. I need the Maps."

"Slow your roll," Anna said, holding a hand up. "What the shuck are you trying to tell me?"

"I can't explain it. I just need to show you. I need wax paper."

"Look, kid, if you're just gonna beat around the bush like this—"

" _No,"_ Thomas insisted. "I don't want to explain. Where is the wax paper?"

Anna first went to find Newt and Minho, and then went to find wax paper for the Greenie. He also told her that he needed black markers or pens, so she grabbed a bunch of those, along with five pairs of scissors.

The five Gladers sat in a circle in the Map Room, and Anna, Minho, Teresa and Newt were looking expectantly at Thomas.

"Where's the oldest one?" Thomas asked. "When did you start making the Maps?"

"Pretty much day one," Minho said. "We kept rough sketches for the first couple days, and then after a week or so we began making the actual Maps."

"Cool," Thomas replied. "Where're those?"

Minho grabbed a trunk full of paper and pushed it towards Thomas, who grabbed a piece of paper at random and found each Map from that same day. He then began to trace the Map from Section One onto a piece of wax paper, and gestured for the others to do the same.

Once they were finished with that day, Thomas took all the Maps and placed them on top of one another. At first it just looked like spaghetti strewn all over the page, but once he'd placed Section Eight on top, there was a clear letter F in the middle of the paper.

"See?" he said breathlessly. "Keep going. I think we'll find something."

About an hour later, Anna's fingers were sore and she had had enough of tracing.

"I'm done," she announced, sitting back on her heels. "How much have we figured out?"

Thomas put the Maps together, and came up with the words _float_ and _cat._ Anna was unimpressed by this code.

"That doesn't sound like much of a way out," Newt observed, voicing her opinion exactly.

"Just keep tracing them. There's got to be something," Thomas assured them.

After about ten minutes, they had decoded two words. _Float_ and _catch._

"We've got to go through all these," Anna said, gesturing to the boxes and boxes of Maps.

"Thomas and I are gonna go run the Maze," Minho said, standing up and looking down at Thomas expectantly.

"No way!" Thomas cried. "We've got to figure this out!"

"Look, Thomas," Minho snapped. "We're gonna stay out there all night like you wanted to do before. I suggest you get your shuck butt off the floor and into the Maze before I force you in."

Thomas peeled himself off of the floor with a mixture of excitement and annoyance written on his face. He walked out the door with Minho, leaving Anna, Newt, and Teresa to continue figuring out the code.

Anna, wanting to get the job done faster, gathered up a group of six or seven Gladers to work on it with them. They sat on the floor for almost three more hours trying to crack the code, and by the end of it, Anna's fingers felt like they might fall off. She was a little disappointed by what the code had turned out to be. It was only six words: _Float, Catch, Bleed, Death, Stiff, Push._ She had no idea what they meant, but they didn't sound too cheery to her. Anna didn't know exactly what to use the code for, but she figured she'd ask Thomas when he came back with Minho.

While they were waiting for them to return the next morning, Anna and Newt got the Glade back into working order. The Track-Hoes were gardening (though they didn't have much to do, as the sun was gone and the supplies were cut off), the Builders were building (despite the fact that their Keeper had lost it and been abducted by Grievers), and Frypan was in the kitchen doing his best to ration the remaining food supplies (which Anna was sure went against every single one of his morals as a cook).

Anna was pleased with her handiwork as she assessed the Gladers doing what they did best.

"Good work, Anna," she congratulated herself.

"Self-absorbed, much?" said a snarky voice from behind her. Anna spun around to see Minho standing there with a halfhearted smirk on his face, accompanied by a very bedraggled Thomas. Newt and Teresa spotted them and ran over, each with a look of hope on their face.

"Did you find anything?" Anna asked. Minho frowned.

"No. Nothing. Nothing changed."

"Well, I think we figured out the code," Anna said in an attempt to create good news. Thomas perked right up, and Minho gave a small smile. Anna led them to the Map Room, which everyone had vacated. She showed Minho and Thomas the sheet of paper on which they'd written the code.

"Float, catch, bleed, death, stiff, push," Thomas read. "What the shuck does _that_ mean?"

"You're supposed to be the one who knows everything," Anna said, shrugging.

As soon as the words had passed her lips, a weird change came across Thomas. He went paper white and glanced at the ground, fidgeting with the paper, swaying slightly where he stood.

"Are you alright?" Newt asked. "You went funny for a second."

"I'm fine," Thomas muttered. "Just tired."

Anna remained unconvinced, but she let the matter drop. Thomas _should_ be tired, after all, as he'd just spent twenty-four hours in the Maze and likely hadn't gotten much sleep. Upon deciding that there wasn't any more to be discussed, she, Newt, Minho, Thomas, and Teresa all filed out the door a few moments later, and dispersed throughout the Glade.

That night, Anna and Newt performed the same routine that they had the previous night. They got all the Gladers together in the Homestead, and let them go into separate rooms. Anna wondered who had _her_ room. Disregarding this, she went into the one across the hallway from her own with Newt, Thomas, Teresa, and Minho.

Thomas was still acting funny. Though he'd claimed to be tired, he didn't sleep at all throughout the night, and since Anna didn't either, she could confirm this. The room was silent until the Grievers came again, and there was a loud commotion from across the hallway. Anna cringed as she heard people yelling from the other room,

 _"It's got Dave!"_

Anna didn't have time to process this because as soon as Thomas heard that, he leapt to his feet and ran out the door. Anna gave a shout of surprise and ran after him, just in time to see him jump directly in the path of the Griever carrying Dave. The thing's horrible mechanized arm shot out in the blink of an eye and made contact with Thomas' shoulder, and there was nothing Anna could do as he crumpled in a heap on the grass.

Rushing over to where he lay unmoving on the grass, Anna knelt beside Thomas.

"Get his legs," she yelled over her shoulder at Newt, who had followed her outside despite his limp. Newt knelt at Thomas' feet and Anna at his head, and the two of them lifted him up as well as they could.

"You bloody idiot," Newt was shouting.

"No…" Thomas mumbled. "It wasn't…"

"Shut up!" Newt snapped. "Don't talk."

"I did it on purpose," Thomas slurred, before his eyes shut and his head flopped backwards limply. Anna could only guess what his motive had been for this particular act of stupidity. _I'll find out later,_ she thought. _That's how it is with Thomas, I guess._


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey everyone!**

 **I'm pretty sure that the next chapter is gonna be the last one, so keep an eye out for chapter 17 and my Scorch Trials fanfic!**

 **-Plerfstacks :)**

Chapter 16

For the next few days, Anna tried to keep the Glade on its feet until Thomas had gotten through with the Changing and was able to help them get out. This was easier said than done, however, because the Gladers were attacked every night by Grievers, picking off one of them every night, which put the rest of the boys (and Anna) into a bit of a tense mood.

She managed it, however, with the help of Newt, who seemed just as stressed out as she was. This was the first time since he'd become her second that she felt as overwhelmed as when she'd been the sole leader.

It didn't help their current situation that half of their Med-Jacks had fallen into a state of depression after one of the Grievers had gotten Zart on the first night after Thomas was stung. Clint and Zart had been best friends since Clint first showed up in the Box, and now that Zart was dead, Clint didn't seem to know what to do with himself. Anna had tried to counsel him, but nothing she said seemed to help. The only one who seemed to be getting through to him was Newt, probably because Newt was the only one who could relate to what Clint was going through. This resulted in Newt spending most of his spare time in the Homestead with Clint, and therefore Anna didn't see much of him. While she understood that she shouldn't be jealous of her friend for being able to spend more time with Newt than she was, Anna couldn't help but feel a twinge of selfish resentment every time she watched Newt's tall, slim silhouette walking to the Homestead.

After their hasty dinner of a way-too-small piece of bread three nights after Thomas's stupid nobility stunt, Anna and Newt led the Gladers to the Homestead for their customary huddling-in-a-corner-and-not-sleeping sort of night. Anna took advantage of this time to go see how Thomas was doing. He'd stopped screaming earlier that day, and Anna was hoping he'd come out of it soon. She hated to admit it, but she really needed the kid's help, and Anna could tell that Teresa wanted him to wake up soon, too, as she'd taken to standing around beside Thomas's bed and refusing to talk to anybody. Anna had carefully approached her once, only to be glared at by her fiery blue eyes that seemed to pierce right through Anna's small bubble of confidence upon entering the room. She had backed out the way she came, and hadn't seen much more of Teresa after that incident. She wished she could make friends with her, though, because as the only girl in the Glade for more than two years, Anna really needed another female around.

Thomas seemed to be doing alright, as she was told by Jeff. He seemed even more overworked and frazzled than she was, and Anna would have given him the night off if his only coworker hadn't been incapacitated. Instead, she walked out with an apologetic smile and went to go huddle in a room to escape the Grievers.

On the way, she ran into Newt, who gave her a small smile as he walked past her. Anna reached out and grabbed his elbow as he passed, and he turned around to face her.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "You seem funny."

"I'm gonna go check on Clint," Newt replied. "I think he's gonna be fine, but I still want to make sure…" As he trailed off, he slid his arm out of her grip and began to walk towards the end of the hallway once more, leaving Anna feeling confused and slightly hurt.

The Grievers came again that night, as everyone was expecting. They took another one of the Gladers with them, Matt, who'd been a good friend of Minho's. They were down another Runner, and Anna realized that they probably weren't gonna get a new one. They probably didn't _need_ a new one, actually, because the Runners were getting little to no progress done out there as it was, and Anna was considering telling them all to stop running the Maze entirely.

Thomas woke up that morning. Anna was informed of this pretty much within five minutes of it happening, and she rushed over to the Homestead to see him as soon as she got the news. Newt was already there at the door, and Anna caught up to him before he went inside.

"Hey," she said. "Did you get the news?"

"Yeah," he responded. "Jeff told me. Tommy'd better have some bloody memories. I'd hate for this to all have been for nothing."

Anna agreed. She and Newt walked inside to find Clint (who seemed more or less like his old self) and Jeff standing outside a barely-open door.

"Is he in there?" Anna asked.

"Yeah," Clint replied. "Chuck's in there with him."

Anna pushed open the door to reveal a very sickly and pale, but otherwise unharmed Thomas sitting on a bed, in conversation with Chuck. She stepped inside, followed by her second-in-command. She cut right to the chase; as soon as Thomas glanced up and made eye contact with her, she began to fire questions at him.

"Thomas, what did you see?" she asked. "Do you know how to get out?"

Thomas looked overwhelmed by the rapid-fire way that Anna was talking to him, but he managed to formulate an answer.

"I don't know exactly what I saw, and yes, I do know a way out."

They called a meeting of the Council that afternoon. The Keepers were all so interested in what Thomas had to say that Anna didn't have to yell at them to shut up before they began.

"Go, Thomas," she said. "Tell us everything."

"Where do I even shucking begin?" he muttered, seemingly to himself. "Okay. I don't know exactly _what_ it was that I remembered; bits of it have faded, but I do know this: The Maze is a test. It was fabricated to mess with our brains; to make us think. We're part of a massive experiment to discover who-knows-what, and we're just lab rats in a big testing center. They want us to find a way out, because now we've run out of time. Teresa triggered the Ending, and now we have to get out of this mess."

"Slow down," Newt said, holding his hands up. "Start at the bloody beginning."

"Uh, okay. The beginning. I guess this all starts where we were taken away from our families when we were young and put in this big lab. I don't know why we were the ones to be chosen, and I don't care, to be honest. They trained us from the start, teaching us things and tracking our brains. They even gave us stupid names to replace our old ones."

"Wait," Anna said. "These aren't our _names?"_ Thomas shook his head.

"No. They named us after famous scientists and that sort of thing. Newt for Isaac Newton, Thomas for Thomas Edison, and Anna for someone called Anna Winlock."

"Shuck," Anna murmured. All this time, she'd clung to her own name like a lifeline in her sea of deleted memories. It had been the only thing that she'd been able to keep from her old life, and here she was finding out that her lifeline was really a fake; a shadow that she'd been holding onto and now found herself being swept away.

The general murmur of surprise at this proclamation quieted after a second, and Thomas went on.

"Teresa and I were different, though," he said. "We were pretty much in the center of it all. We… helped the Creators do this to you—to us."

"Explain," Newt said shortly.

"We helped design the shucking Maze. And… there's one more thing."

"Well, then you'd best bloody say it, then," Newt pressed, his voice annoyed.

"We… We can…"

"Just tell us!" Anna cried.

"We're telepathic!" Thomas yelled. "We can talk to each other in our heads!"

Anna frowned.

"Okay then," she muttered. "I really wish you'd told me about that earlier so I could have kept a better eye on you shanks…"

"But how do we get out?" somebody yelled from across the room.

"Oh, yeah," Thomas said, nodding. "We've got to go into the Maze. Off the Cliff. We need to use the words that we decoded from the wall movement to open a door or something."

"If we're gonna go into the Maze, we need to do it tonight," Anna decided. "We're not gonna think about it long enough to get scared. We need to do it at night when all the Grievers are in the Glade, and then maybe that will increase our chances."

There was a murmur of assent around the room, and Anna dismissed the Council, wondering what she'd gotten herself into.

That night, Anna and a group of about thirty-five Gladers who had agreed to come gathered around the East Doors. They had waited until the Grievers were out ravaging the Glade, as had become the usual occurrence, to head out. Anna hadn't let anyone bring any sort of light with them, because she was worried it would attract Grievers. The group huddled in the darkness, all of them scared out of their minds.

"Shouldn't we have some sort of pep talk?" Minho asked. "Ya know, to psych us up?"

"Be my guest," Newt replied. Minho turned around so he was facing the Gladers.

"Be careful. Don't die," he said bluntly. Newt rolled his eyes.

"Great. We're all bloody inspired."

Anna stifled a nervous laugh as she stared out into the depths of the Maze.

"Alright, guys," she said loudly, trying to shake herself out of her nervousness. "We're gonna make it tonight. Tonight, we aren't just test subjects. We're gonna march right into whatever shucking laboratory that's been playing with us, and we are going to _show them what we're made of!_ " Her speech ended with her voice a confident yell, and the crowd of Gladers began to yell out battle cries as they waved their fists in the air.

 _"We're gonna make them pay!"_ Anna screamed, almost as if she were talking directly _to_ the Creators, challenging them. She turned around and ran into the Maze, adrenaline pulsing through her as the Gladers followed suit.

Anna's adrenaline rush lasted up until they saw the first Griever. She came to a screeching halt and flung her arms out to stop the rest of the Gladers from being eaten alive. She led the group around a corner, and she poked her head out around the stone wall to see what the Griever was doing.

"Everyone be quiet," she breathed, shushing them. She crept forwards, wondering frantically what they should do. The Griever didn't seem to be going anywhere, but they couldn't just walk right over it. Anna hadn't had time to decide before one of the Gladers had leapt past her and directly into the path of the Griever.

 _"What the shuck, Dan!"_ she screamed, watching helplessly as the Griever began to tear into the poor kid. Before she could fully comprehend the situation, three other Grievers had come to see what all the commotion was about. They crowded around Dan; his piercing shrieks of pain rang in Anna's ears. He had sacrificed himself for the rest of the Gladers, and Anna was just standing there like an idiot. She snapped herself out of it and motioned for the Gladers to follow her. She snuck closer to the Grievers, staying close to the wall. She began to push the Gladers in a single-file line past the gory scene that had once been Dan.

They had gotten most of the Gladers past the Grievers when they suddenly lost interest in Dan and turned on the group of teenagers. Anna shoved the remaining Gladers out of the way of the Grievers as she scrambled to save herself as well. They'd almost reached the Cliff, and all they needed to do was get Thomas and Teresa in the Griever Hole. They were so close.

The Grievers were upon them by that point, and there was nothing Anna could do as she watched her fellow Gladers get massacred. As she grabbed her switchblade and began hacking away at the Grievers' metal arms, she began to look around for Newt. Had he already been brutally murdered? Anna glanced around her with mounting panic until she saw that familiar flash of blond hair and she breathed a sigh of relief. She returned her full attention to grappling with the Griever that had gotten a hold of her arm in one of its metal claws while she'd been looking for Newt. After a moment of wildly wrestling with the thing, she managed to rip its arm right off, leaving the claws embedded in her wrist. Yanking it out with a stifled gasp of pain, Anna wondered whether Thomas and Teresa had made it. She turned her head slightly and saw Thomas practically throwing Chuck into the Griever Hole. Why was he taking Chuck?

She didn't have much time to wonder, though, because the Grievers were closing in on them and their numbers were dwindling. _Please, Thomas,_ she silently prayed, wishing she could talk to him in her head like Teresa could. _Hurry the shuck up._

Out of the corner of her eye, Anna saw a kid named Will, previously a Builder, slide off the edge of the Cliff and fall into the abyss below, completely missing the Griever Hole. Her stomach clenched into a knot, but she ignored it as she ran over to help Jeff, who had his own problems. The slug-like creature had him pressed up against the wall, and it was advancing on him menacingly with its flashlights shining in his eyes and its knives and needles brandished. Anna was about two steps away from getting to him and helping him when the Griever lashed out with its blade, slicing Jeff cleanly across the throat and letting him crumple limply to the ground. Anna froze, blood pounding in her ears as she watched the Griever turn around, almost in slow motion. It loomed over her, its knife's blade still dripping with Jeff's blood. Anna didn't know what to do; she scrambled backwards uselessly as the Griever stared down at her. Suddenly, its mechanized arms fell lifelessly at its sides and the Griever flopped to the floor of the Maze and lay still. Anna gaped at it for a moment until she realized that _all_ of their assailants had seemingly died all at once. Shouts of triumph exploded from the Gladers as they gathered together once more. Anna surveyed the group. There wasn't a single Glader who hadn't sustained at least small injuries, and she herself wasn't too great off either. As she stared victoriously at the bodies of the shut-down Grievers, she was also struck with how small the group had become. They had cut their number at least in half, and the casualties were strewn about all over the floor.

"We need to go through the Griever Hole," Anna said after a moment. "Thomas and Teresa must have done it."

The Gladers took turns jumping off the Cliff into the Hole, and Anna felt a twinge of fear every time someone did. She kept worrying that somebody would miss the Hole entirely, and add to their losses. Nobody did, however, and eventually she and Newt were the only ones left in the Maze.

"You're bleeding," Newt said to her as they stood on the edge of the Cliff. Anna glanced down. Sure enough, her right wrist was covered in blood where the Griever had clawed her. She dismissed this, however, and simply said,

"Just jump off the Cliff, Newt. I'll be fine."

Newt nodded and walked to the very edge. When he jumped, Anna felt herself seized with panic that was more than she'd felt every other time somebody had jumped into the Griever Hole. She was convinced for a second that he'd miss, but Newt disappeared into the Hole just like everyone else. Anna stepped up once he'd gone, and without thinking about it, she leapt off the ledge.

 **A/N:**

 **Anna Winlock is an actual scientist who lived in the 1800s-1900s, and she was the inspiration for my OC's name before I wrote this. Just a fun fact :)**


	17. Chapter 17

**Two updates in one day :D!**

 **This is the very last chapter in this fanfic, but I'm also going to be writing a sequel to this one, so be sure to check that out when I upload chapter 1.**

 **Thanks to everyone who read/favorited/followed/reviewed! You guys are awesome. :)**

 **-Plerfstacks :)**

Chapter 17

Anna tumbled through the Hole and into a room that was big enough to give the seventeen or so remaining Gladers some elbow room. She looked around the room, blinking in the bright fluorescent light. Thomas, Teresa, and Chuck were standing apart from the other Gladers, and all three of them looked shocked and relieved at what had just happened.

"What's going on?" Anna asked. She glanced around at her surroundings. The room that they were standing in seemed empty, save for a computer in the back. There was a door that opened up on the far side of the wall.

"Are you the last one?" Thomas asked her. Anna nodded. "Alright then," Thomas said, looking around. "We need to go through that door."

The Gladers filed through the tunnel that the door in the first room had led to. There wasn't a lot of room in there, but Anna and the others forged ahead, anxious to find what lay at the end. After a couple minutes, they came to the end of the tunnel; a gaping mouth of a hole greeted them.

"I guess the only way is to go down whatever that is," Anna said in a voice that she knew was far too jovial. The Gladers murmured assent, and in a very disorganized fashion they climbed into the hole and slid down the tube. The surface was slimy and greasy, and Anna had to fight not to gag at the smell coming off of it. The Gladers flew through the tube at breakneck speed, the oily stuff allowing them to go even faster. Anna didn't know which way was up and which way was down as she tumbled this way and that, and on a few occasions she found her hand in somebody's mouth, or her fist clenching a handful of somebody's hair. By the time they landed, Anna was very disoriented, and almost didn't notice that her ribcage was being crushed by Thomas, who'd landed on top of her. The Gladers unpicked themselves from each other, and after a moment they'd gotten themselves under control.

Anna, breathing heavily, took in her surroundings. This room had more stuff in it than the last one, and she didn't know what half of it was. There were white, shiny boxes in one corner, wiring and machinery absolutely everywhere, and to her left…

People. There were shucking _people_ behind a glass wall, watching them. They were all wearing identical outfits that had something monogrammed on the front shirt pocket that Anna couldn't make out. She backed away from the strange people, and the other Gladers did the same.

"Those are the shuck Creators," Minho whispered to her right. "They're freaking _watching_ us." He seemed paralyzed with the realization of it all, until he freaked out and tried to break the glass. Anna and Newt restrained him as well as they could until a murmur spread through the crowd and Minho stopped trying to kill the Creators. Anna turned to see a woman walking toward them, wearing different clothes than the rest of them. She was accompanied by a boy whose face was hidden from view.

"Hello," the woman said simply. "You've done a wonderful job. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Who the shuck are you?" Anna asked.

"That doesn't matter," she replied. "What does matter is that you've returned to WICKED. You've been missed." The way that she said _you've been missed_ made Anna think the exact opposite. Anna dismissed this thought, however, and instead focused on the "returned to WICKED" part. She was about to ask the woman for some serious clarification when she spontaneously reached out and tugged the hood off of her friend's face. Anna stifled a gasp as she beheld the boy standing before them.

 _"Gally!"_ Anna cried. "You shucking idiot! What the shuck is going on?"

"Don't worry," the ever-calm woman replied. "Everything will become clear soon. There is only one final test."

"What do you mean _one final test?_ " Anna asked, anger mounting in her voice. The WICKED woman didn't answer, however, because Gally did it for her.

"Anna…" he mumbled, his eyes wide. "They've got control over me. You have to help—"

Then, suddenly, something strange came over him, and he grabbed a dagger out of absolutely nowhere. Gally, without warning, hurled the knife at Thomas with more force than Anna thought humanly possible. There was nothing Anna could do as the knife flew through the air, aimed at Thomas's heart. Suddenly, Chuck appeared out of nowhere and flung himself in front of Thomas, intercepting the knife with his body. The boy landed on the floor in a heap as Thomas fell to his knees beside him. Tears streaming down his face, Thomas cradled Chuck in his arms as the boy's blood began to pool around them. Thomas whispered something to Chuck as he stared down at him, most of which Anna didn't catch as she stood stock-still, overcome with the shock of what had just happened. Chuck gave a mumbled reply, and his eyelids began to shut, even as he tried to keep them open.

"No, Chuck," Thomas was sobbing. "No, please, Chuck. You're not going to die."

"Thomas," Chuck said in a quiet rasp of a voice. "Thomas, it's going to be okay." Blood dripped down his chin and onto Thomas's hands and arms.

"Stay with me, Chuck," Thomas said, almost angrily. "You're not gonna die."

Chuck started to say something, but his eyes dulled and his lids remained half-shut. Shaking, Thomas stood up, completely drenched in Chuck's blood, and hurled himself at Gally. He tackled Gally to the ground and began tearing into him, punching every inch of his face and yanking out tufts of his hair. Anna snapped out of her stupor suddenly and ran forwards, Newt following her. They grabbed Thomas and dragged him, convulsing, over to the other side of the room. Thomas, still trembling violently, pressed his back into the wall and his head into his hands. His shoulders shook with sobs as Anna, Newt, and the rest of the Gladers remained somewhat shell-shocked by the scene that had just unfolded. Teresa walked over to Thomas and tried to comfort him, and Thomas looked up at her, wild-eyed, with something like insanity flickering on his face. He didn't say anything, though, and they were interrupted right then by a loud siren and lots of yelling from outside. Suddenly, a door that Anna hadn't even known was there opened up, letting bright sunlight stream into the room. Anna squinted against the light as people rushed in and began shoving them towards the door. One of them grabbed the woman who'd shown up with Gally and shot her, point-blank. Anna reeled in even more shock as she watched the woman crumple to the floor, her blood adding to the horrific mess in the room. She noticed numbly that she was being pushed out the door with the rest of the Gladers and loaded into a bus. Once she was sitting beside Newt on the bus, she realized finally that they were either being rescued, or kidnapped. Either way, they were escaping the awful room that they'd been in before, and, Anna realized suddenly, they were escaping the Maze.

The bus ride was longer than Anna would have liked, given the fact that she was still traumatized and would like nothing better than to go take a nap for at least a few months. The people who'd rescued them told them the whole story of what was going on, and though Anna listened, she didn't remember most of it. The only thing she was aware of was a constant murmur of speech and the view from out the window. There wasn't a lot to see; most of the terrain was desert, with a few decrepit cities sprinkled about. Suddenly, the bus slowed and stopped in front of a large building that didn't have a sign in front or anything. Anna and the other Gladers were ushered off of the bus and through the large doors. They walked down a long hallway and into a large room that had virtually no furniture. They were met by a group of adults wearing similar outfits and from there, they were led in separate directions. Anna found herself being taken by the arm and pulled into a room with a large chair and a variety of other equipment that she didn't recognize.

"What's going on?" she asked, cringing at how bad off she sounded. The woman who'd led her there smiled.

"You've been rescued, honey," she replied. "We were finally able to get you out."

Anna recoiled slightly at being called "honey", but she didn't comment.

"You've been trying to help us?" she asked. The woman nodded.

"That's right. Now I just need you to stay quiet, alright?"

Anna nodded, even though she had about a million and one questions. The woman bustled around the room for a moment, fiddling with stuff that Anna didn't know a thing about. Anna zoned out for a moment, and the next thing she knew, she was hooked up to an IV machine and there was a funny cold sensation in her right arm. She had a moment of total panic mode, until she realized that they wouldn't be trying to kill her if they'd gone to all the trouble of getting them out of WICKED. Anna relaxed, and before she knew it, she was floating into unconsciousness.

When Anna awoke later, she had no indication of what time it was, but the same woman who'd talked to her earlier was still standing in front of her, so it couldn't have been _too_ long. Anna sat up, realizing as she did so that she was still hooked up to the IV machine. The woman standing in front of her rushed forward and pushed Anna back down with her head pressed against the fully reclined chair.

"What the shuck?" Anna asked. "Let me out."

"I will, sweetie, as soon as I get you unhooked from the machine." Anna frowned, still sort of annoyed at the endearments being fired at her. Nobody was allowed to talk to her like that except for Newt. She decided to let this matter go, however, and waited somewhat impatiently for her captor to let her go. After a minute or so, she was told that she could go meet the others, and the woman escorted her down the hallway and into a large room with two other doors branching off of it. Inside the room was at least half of the seventeen remaining Gladers, including Thomas, Teresa, and Minho. Anna walked over to where they were standing.

"Hey," she said. "What's up?"

"Nothing much," Teresa replied. "We've been waiting for everyone to show up."

"Do you guys know what the shuck they were doing to us back there?" Anna asked, still confused about the whole thing.

"I think it was just because we came from a shucking battle to the death with Grievers," Minho replied. "They wanted to patch us up."

Anna glanced down at her previously injured wrist, which had miraculously been completely healed.

"Shuck," she said appreciatively, flexing her wrist. "They did a good job."

Minho nodded, and they lapsed into silence. After a moment, somebody came up behind Anna and put a hand on her shoulder. She spun around to see Newt grinning at her.

"Hey, guys," he said. "Nice place they've got here, isn't it?" Anna laughed and nodded.

"It's a whole lot better than the Maze, that's for sure."

Thomas gave a small nod at this, which was the only indication he'd given so far of being alive. Anna's jovial mood faded slightly as she looked at the masked sadness on his face. She didn't know exactly what to say, so an awkward silence hung over the group until a bunch of people wearing the same uniform as the people who'd rescued them walked in. They set a bunch of plates and forks and stuff down on the table, and Anna wondered what they were planning on doing. She didn't have long to wonder, though, because after a moment they were handing out pizza to all the Gladers. Anna was surprised to realize that she hadn't had pizza in as long as she could remember, as it was the one thing that Frypan never made. Dave might have made pizza at some point, but Anna never could tell what she was eating with him.

Anna pushed thoughts of Dave out of her head as she remembered that he'd been taken by the Grievers. She instead focused on the food, and it only took the Gladers about ten minutes to eat almost all of it, after which nobody really wanted any more.

The group was separated into their different rooms in which they'd spend the night: Anna and Teresa in one room, all the boys in the other. Anna felt sort of annoyed that she suddenly wasn't allowed to be in the same room as the boys that she'd spent two years in close quarters with, but she decided that it was a small price to pay. Besides, she and Teresa got a whole room to themselves.

"Night, love," Newt murmured as they went their separate ways. Anna pulled him close and kissed him. They were finally safe. Finally she could be with Newt forever without worrying about Grievers or figuring out the Maze. As Anna walked with Teresa to their room, she was truly happy and carefree for the first time in two years. And although Anna didn't know at the time, it would also be one of the last.


End file.
